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The US Navy warns
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China could invade Taiwan soon.
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And the Chinese Communist Party wants the US
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To be afraid.
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Very afraid.
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Welcome to China Uncensored.
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I'm Chris Chappell.
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This episode has been sponsored by Surfshark—because you should be protecting your identity whenever
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you go online by using a VPN like Surfshark.
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There's been a lot of attention on Taiwan recently.
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And not because of its delicious pineapples.
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Ok, some of the attention has been because of its delicious pineapples.
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But there's more and more concern over whether the Chinese Communist Party will try to take
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Taiwan by force.
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That's why the Taiwan Strait, the body of water that separates Taiwan from China, has
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been called a powder keg that could set off a world war.
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I know what you're thinking.
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Yet another light, uplifting China Uncensored episode.
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And it gets better.
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Earlier this year, a US Admiral warned that China could invade Taiwan in the next six
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years.
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That was Admiral Philip Davidson, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command.
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He made that assessment back in March and then...retired from the Navy.
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Good timing.
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The new commander of the Indo-Pacific Command is also concerned about Taiwan.
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He says that China's threat to Taiwan is “closer to us than most think.”
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And that a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan is the biggest threat in the Pacific.
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And a bigger threat than North Korea or Russia.
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Look, there's a reason that I started China Uncensored, and not North Korea UnJuched,
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or Russia UnPutined.
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And that reason is...I don't want to get poisoned.
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Anyway, the point is that it's good news that the US military is concerned about the
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Chinese regime's threat to Taiwan.
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Now the question is, what are we going to do about it?
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The answer is: Absolutely nothing.
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We don't want to get involved at all!
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Because, according to my favorite state-run media, the Global Times, the US will lose
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a war with China over Taiwan...island.
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Now, at first glance, this seems like a pretty standard Global Times article.
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It blames the US and its Taiwan Relations Act for giving birth to “Taiwan's renegade
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secessionists.”
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It calls Congress's support of Taiwan corrupt.
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And it compares Taiwan's situation to the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
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Just a reminder that Taiwan is a self-governing country that was never controlled by the People's
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Republic of China at any point in history.
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So, yeah, totally the same thing as the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
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But what does the Global Times article say that the US should do, if it doesn't want
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to fight over Taiwan?
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Tell Taiwan to accept “one country, two systems” rule under the Chinese Communist
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Party.
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I mean, it worked out so well for Hong Kong.
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And if that doesn't work, the US president could just rescind the Taiwan Relations Act...which
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he can't do because it's a US law, and only Congress can change laws.
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But if Congress gets in the way, then the US president should just order the US government
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to not get involved in a China-Taiwan conflict.
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And why would the US do this, again?
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Well, it's because China has a decisive advantage in a fight with the US: casualty
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tolerance.
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Meaning, that to get what it wants, the Chinese Communist Party is way more willing to let
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its own people die than the US is.
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Here's the kicker, though.
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The whole point of this article is this sentence: “Taiwan's fate poses no existential threat
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to the US, and the US should not fall into the trap of paying for their hubris with American
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blood.”
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They're saying, Taiwan's not important, so it's definitely not worth shedding American
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blood over, so we should encourage them to “reunify” with an authoritarian regime
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that they were never a part of in the first place.
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What a great idea!
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Like I said, it sounds like a standard Global Times article.
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But it turns out, it wasn't written by a Global Times editor.
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It was written by a retired Marine Corps infantry officer who now serves as a US civil servant
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in the Pentagon.
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Wait, is the Pentagon ok with its employees writing opinion articles in a Chinese propaganda
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outlet that's been designated a foreign mission by the US government?
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Well, apparently the author didn't ask for approval before publishing this piece.
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Which means he could be facing disciplinary action.
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Now, I don't know why this author chose to write this article for a Chinese propaganda
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outlet.
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Maybe he really thinks he's preventing war between China and the US.
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Regardless, for the Global Times, this is a propaganda jackpot.
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I'll tell you more after the break.
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Welcome back.
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This Global Times article is a perfect example of the Chinese Communist Party's political
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warfare.
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As Professor Kerry Gershaneck says, political warfare is the Communist Party's plan to
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win without fighting.
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Part of political warfare is media warfare.
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That “involves using public opinion as a weapon by propagandizing through various forms
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of media in order to weaken the adversary's 'will to fight.'”
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Here's an example: This China Daily article warns that Taiwan should abandon its independence
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stance to avoid war.
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The Communist Party might call it Taiwan's independence stance.
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Normal people would call it acknowledging reality.
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Unlike Chinese state-run media, which has to call Taiwan's presidential elections
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the Taiwan regional leadership elections.
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Because they can't admit that Taiwan is in fact already independent.
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But the point is, the Communist Party is using media warfare to intimidate Taiwan.
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And that's what they're doing to the US, too.
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Their message is, Taiwan isn't worth fighting for, so we should encourage them to give in
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to the Chinese Communist Party.
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What's interesting is that the Communist Party's media warfare messaging is showing
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up in American media outlets, too.
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More after the break.
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Welcome back
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Messages from the Communist Party's media warfare are showing up in US media outlets.
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Like in this article, which calls a war over Taiwan foolish and costly for the US.
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It says the best case scenario is that the US will “suffer egregious losses in ships,
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aircraft, and troops.”
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While in a worst-case scenario, American cities are turned into nuclear wastelands, killing
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millions.
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And all over an issue that doesn't directly affect our national security.
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That is bullpucky.
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Excuse my French.
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I've talked before on the show about why Taiwan is an important national security issue
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for the US, and especially US allies in Asia.
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Including Taiwan's strategic position in the first island chain.
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And the fact that Taiwan manufactures the most advanced semiconductors in the world.
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And how losing Taiwan would put US security in the Pacific at a huge risk.
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Oh yeah, plus the moral issue that we shouldn't just hand over a democratic country of 24
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million people to an authoritarian regime that's committing genocide.
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When people talk about appeasing the Chinese Communist Party by letting them take Taiwan,
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it's like they assume that the Party is going to stop with Taiwan.
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No, the Party never stops.
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There are other examples of the Party's media warfare messaging popping up in US media.
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Like this New York Times opinion article that calls President Biden's Taiwan policy reckless.
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Because it's increasing the risk of world war.
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Yeah, that sounds bad.
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But the article conflates showing more support for Taiwan with trying to establish official
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diplomatic relations with Taiwan, something the Biden administration is definitely not
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doing right now.
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And it assumes the reason we've been able to avoid war over Taiwan for 40 years is because
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everyone just pretends that Taiwan is not officially a country.
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That's wrong.
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The reason we've been able to avoid war for 40 years is because the Chinese Communist
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Party's military isn't able to invade Taiwan yet.
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But the message here is that we shouldn't do anything to anger China, because that could
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lead to war.
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It's straight out of the media warfare playbook!
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So what's the point of this media warfare messaging?
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It's not going to intimidate the Pentagon, but it still could have a huge effect.
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First, it plants the idea in US media that the US shouldn't support Taiwan, because
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that might anger China, which could lead to war.
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That leads to more and more articles about how the US shouldn't support Taiwan.
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And that influences US business and political elites to also say that the US shouldn't
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support Taiwan, because that might anger China, which could lead to war.
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That especially works for those elites who have business interests in China.
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Which is...all of them.
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It's like the Chinese Communist Party is...winning the war without fighting.
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And this could also affect US policy, too.
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Support for Taiwan is a popular, bipartisan issue among US officials.
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But most Americans don't know much about Taiwan, or why it's important.
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So this type of media warfare can be used to demoralize average Americans.
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If you turn Americans against the idea of fighting for Taiwan, then that puts even more
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pressure on US politicians to stop supporting Taiwan.
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Look, no one wants to see an actual boots-on-the-ground war with China.
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But the way to avoid war is not to appease the Chinese Communist Party.
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We should know by now that appeasement doesn't work.
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The way to avoid war is deterrence: not letting it get to that point in the first place.
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And there are many ways the US can deter a war with China over Taiwan...which I can talk
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about in another episode.
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See?
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This was uplifting.
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I'm ending it on a note of hope!
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And this episode is sponsored by Surfshark.
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Once again, I'm Chris Chappell.
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See you next time.