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CHINA SOME IMPORTANT ISSUES WITH CHINA Business Basics: Mutiny In China: Young Chinese are Threatening CCP's Rule PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJxkBXiunNs Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
Mutiny In China: Young Chinese are Threatening CCP's Rule Business Basics Sep 15, 2024 1.08M subscribers ... 1,792,455 views ... 78K likes Sign up to my free 7 day Youtube Basics Crash course here: https://bit.ly/7dayCrashcourse Sign up for our FREE Geopolitics Newsletter: https://www.globalrecaps.com/subscribe Join the Basics Team: ▶️ Apply for Shorts Writer: https://forms.gle/Hsz7XViCv2nCX92Z9 ▶️ Apply for Script Writer: https://forms.gle/x9fvA5GmUA5Nec9eA ▶️ Apply for Clips Researcher / Gatherer: https://forms.gle/hYqkLTEKbHGGSSxH9 Mutiny In China: Young Chinese are Threatening CCP's Rule China's Youth Crisis: How Young Chinese are Threatening CCP's Rule? China's Planning an Attack on Ukraine: Why China Desperately Needs Russia To Win China's DESPERATE Plan to Help Russia BEAT Ukraine Hong Kong Has Fallen - How CCP Crushed Democracy in Hong Kong Hong Kong Warns China: 'GET OUT!' - How CCP Crushed Democracy in Hong Kong Secret Chinese Spying Operations in US Government Revealed Transcript 0:00 the Chinese youth are doing what even the US cannot do they've launched a movement that could destroy China's economy there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction Brewing among the young in China a new phenomenon called ban meaning let it rot it's a rebellion so unique that the CCP can't even suppress this Movement Like It generally does police flooded the streets to crush a remarkable Uprising in major Chinese cities in Shanghai the country's biggest city police arrested protesters draging them away in fact this nonviolent movement could turn so deadly for the Chinese economy that the same dictator who used to threaten even the most powerful countries is now literally requesting the youth to end this Rebellion president cing ping took great pains to send a strong message of empowerment to 1:01 Chinese youths as if that wasn't enough China is now facing severe consequences for a policy implemented 44 years ago the world's most populous country is facing a crisis it does not have young people to man its factories or join its Army but what exactly is this Rebellion why are Chinese youth so frustrated and most importantly how are these problems becoming a nightmare for China in March of 202 2 ban a Chinese term gained immense popularity in China so much so that in just 6 months it got more than 91 million views on Chinese app webo I mean 91 million views in a country like China you can imagine how serious the issue must have been because China generally bans such Trends which could pose a threat to the ccp's leadership maybe China dismissed it as just another Trend and ignored it but the consequence it started showing later were something 2:02 no one could have imagined now I have my suspicions that the ccp's Bots have always been disliking my China videos in order to suppress it in the algorithm so if you guys can just take a quick second of your time and tap that like button below it helps me out a lot with the YouTube algorithm especially when covering topics that are exposing the CCP thanks so much the term Bon translates to let it rot in this movement young people ref refuse to put further efforts in life because they don't see any hope in doing so many of them have quit their jobs abandoned their families stopped working hard and started accepting being ordinary in fact this wasn't the first such Trend in China in 2021 the concept of Tong ping which means lying flat was one of the top 10 internet buzzwords in China but the question is how did China end up in this situation although the trend emerged in 2022 The Roots of this discontent didn't stem from an overnight event they were the result of a ripple 3:04 effect from numerous Chinese policies November 16th 1993 new Oriental education a private educational services company was founded in China it started seeing massive success so much so that it even became the largest provider of private Educational Services in China it even got listed in the New York Stock Exchange in 2006 and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020 the private tutoring sector was getting established in the 1990s and in the span of a decade like new Oriental some of the biggest players were expanding so quickly they started issuing shares in fact before getting listed new Oriental in 2004 even reported that the size of the educational Market in China was approximately 580 billion R&B or about 72 billion so the tutoring Market was booming and it provided a huge number of jobs estimates even suggest that China's lucrative tutoring industry once employed around 10 million people but 4:06 there's a reason I'm using the word once because what China did to this industry in 2021 shocked the entire world it erased billions of dollars of wealth from the markets listing companies lost 80 to 90% of their value tens of thousands of them lost their jobs and it destroyed the entire $100 billion industry let's address something that's been on my mind before before we move forward after watching my videos or other YouTubers videos I'm sure some of you guys have thought about starting your own channel one of the biggest hurdles people face when starting a YouTube channel is that they are not comfortable showing their face in videos not everyone wants to give up their privacy and be in the public eye all the time that's one of the big reasons why our videos are made in a documentary style the craziest part is people still love the videos as you can see from the fact that we recently crossed a million subscribers in fact there are millions of faceless YouTube channels making content and earning ad Revenue in just the last 3 years YouTube has paid out 5:05 $70 billion to creators that's around $60 million every single day so if you're someone who's interested in starting a YouTube channel right now is the perfect time that's why we've launched a completely free 7-Day email crash course on how to start and grow a faceless YouTube channel if that's something you're interested in you can sign up now for free by clicking the link in the description or scanning the QR code on the screen all right now let's get back to the topic at hand tutoring companies can no longer teach compulsory School subjects teach during school hours nor earn a profit in July of 2021 China banned for profit tutoring for school curriculum subjects banned subject-based tutoring institutions from listing on stock markets or raising funds although the intention of this move was to lessen the academic burden this sudden move resulted in a huge job loss new Oriental education lost 83% of its value in just 10 months and most of the 6:05 players in the tutoring sector lost almost 90% of their market value in less than a year companies laid off almost 40 to 50% of their staff if we just consider the top seven listed companies 206,000 people lost their jobs in fact these are figures of the listed entities we're not even considering the brick and mortar classrooms the smaller businesses this wasn't just the tutoring sector the CCP also cracked down on the real estate and Tech sectors since 2021 you could predict the results in 2022 the e-commerce giant Alibaba ended up laying off more than 10,000 employees and Country Garden one of the largest property developers fired 30,000 employees now just sit back and imagine for a second about the mother who was feeding the family with the income from tutoring the college graduate who just got a job in one of these companies the 7:02 investors who lost their wealth and the founders who put their blood and sweat and tears into establishing these organizations everything was wiped out in no time now if you're a budding entrepreneur would you feel confident to launch a startup in such an environment no right because you never know when your years of hard work would get wiped out in just a few months similarly even the employees would feel the same right this is just one of the key factors fueling the dissatisfaction among the youth but this isn't the root cause behind the Rebellion you see in 1949 the time when China gained independence it was an extremely poor country so poor that in 1990 it had a staggering 66.3% poverty rate Millions died due to starvation it had a GDP per capita of just $90 but what China did in the next five decades was was nothing short of a 8:01 miracle fast forward to 2022 China's GDP per capita grew by 141 times to $2,720 yeah you heard that right 141 times in fact China became the second largest economy in the world with a $17.9 trillion GDP on top of that the poverty rate decreased from 66.3% in 1990 to just. 3% in 2018 during the hard times older Generations worked very hard creating a culture of long working hours in China this is why even today the Chinese work from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. for 6 days a week this is known as the 996 work culture in China this translates to 72 hours a week just for comparison the worldwide average working week consists of about 40 hours in fact according to China's labor laws a standard workday is 8 hours long with a maximum of 44 hours 9:04 a week but they still work almost 28 hours more than their standards part of the reason for this is the tight competition in the Chinese job market which we'll discuss soon but this culture is so ingrained that a Chinese employee would almost feel left out if they left before 9:00 p.m. this is what the younger Generations in China are rejecting the young people have seen other possibilities and they prefer more flexible Lifestyles but what if they don't have an option to do so imagine you are working for 12 hours a day 6 days a week and just like the Chinese people you are fed up with it but you still can't quit your job imagine your health and your relationships getting messed up simply because you can't give enough time to them seems weird right but this is the case with so many Chinese youth most of them can't quit this toxic culture even if they want to simply because of one particular reason 10:02 the harsh truth that China has hidden from the world youth unemployment hit another record high in May of 20.8% that's up from 20.4 the prior month in August of 2023 the Chinese government released a shocking piece of data According to which a record 21.3% of Chinese youth were unemployed seeing these numbers the CCP thought that this is horrible and decided to eradicate such horrible numbers in fact they did by suspending the future publication of the urban youth unemployment rate yeah that was the typical Chinese solution for it this is why most of the Chinese youth had no option but to continue with the 996 work culture simply because there aren't enough jobs and they don't have any option but to continue with their existing jobs in fact the competition is set to worson to such an extent that these same Chinese universities which produced 9 million fresh graduates in 2021 are expected to produce 11.8 million graduates in 2024 so the 11:06 competition is becoming even more Fierce this is the reason why more than one in five young workers are jobless in China now this is also in part due to the Bon movement but also in part due to there not being enough jobs in the market the situation could worsen to such an extent that according to an economist at the pay King University almost half of all Chinese youth maybe jobless now this also includes those who are willingly lying flat but you can imagine how bad the situation could become the situation is so bad that fresh graduates are taking up weird and I mean extremely weird jobs like this or else yeah you heard that right fresh graduates are becoming full-time 12:05 children where they would spend time with their parents help them with the housework and in return they get a salary for it hey Mom here's the bill you owe me at least $500,000 sorry guys anyway I tried to correlate the relationship between the lack of jobs the hustle culture and the Bon movement when I studied multiple case studies on this the plight of the helpless Chinese youth kind of shook me this is what I found in an interview with CNBC 30-year-old Crystal gu said that she first became the victim of China's Crackdown on the private tutoring system finally after 6 months and a lot of struggles she found another job at a real estate company unfortunately her entire department was laid off in a few months she tried to find another job but this was the time when the tech industry was also reporting layoffs so she finally decided to give up and decided to escape from 13:00 reality by lying flat to cover her daily expenses or pursue other Hobbies she used her free time to take up part-time jobs this is the case with millions of Chinese youth they are using the Bon movement as a form of escapism but there's another and perhaps stronger reason behind this chya every society has some societal expectation especially from the youth in China it is known as Chang Lea which means to establish a family and a career now this also includes buying an apartment in fact buying an apartment is linked to their social status in China so buying property is considered an achievement amongst the youth but again the prices of homes have risen so much that buying a home in Shanghai and Beijing has become nearly impossible for the average young Chinese person the prices are so high that the average housing prices are almost 12 times more than the average income in China this is 14:00 the reason why Chinese youths have refused to fall for this societal pressure simply just because it would be a financial trap for most of them so all these factors combined have dealt a severe blow to the most important thing morale movements like Tang ping and ban are not just harming XI jinping's Chinese dream ideology but would also have a large impact on the Chinese economy have a look at this this is China's lab productivity growth the average for each year comes to almost 7% but after 2021 it has almost dropped to 4% I know there are plenty of other major reasons for it which we will definitely discuss but the growing discontent it's definitely played a role in this even in these charts you can see a decrease in China's consumer confidence index and a sharp drop in China's retail sales this is because unemployment is rising Chinese youth are jobless and this is why they are spending less since they will spend less 15:04 the demand will drop further companies will produce less and as a result either layoffs will take place or a smaller number of jobs will be created this vicious cycle will continue to affect China unless the CCP takes some solid steps to counter this now you might say so what doesn't matter if the domestic consumption is decreasing China sells to the world and it will continue this Trend to keep growing right actually I was even thinking the same thing until I found this research paper in 1995 only three Chinese firms made it to the Fortune 500 list but as of 2023 this number has increased to a mindboggling 142 which is the highest for any country now although this is impressive the biggest s soes or state-owned Enterprises in the list namely one state grid Corporation of China two China National Petroleum Corporation three China petrochemical Corporation generated more than 85% of 16:06 their revenue domestically as of 2018 almost the same is the case even for private companies so the majority of the Chinese companies on the global 500 would be vulnerable to a major slowdown in the domestic economy in fact China has even started showing signs of a Slowdown one of which is so surprising that you won't even believe it in the first place China's economy is suffering from the opposite deflation consumer prices declined in July for the first time in more than 2 years yes China is suffering from deflation ah yes you heard it correctly you may ask dude the world is suffering from inflation everything is becoming expensive in fact China's consumer prices fell at their fastest Pace in 15 years so if things are getting cheaper in China then that's a good sign right the basic rule of Economics is supply and demand if Supply increases without a 17:01 corresponding increase in demand prices fall and vice versa so the reason there's deflation in China is because the demand has decreased significantly this is because people and businesses are not spending much in China the second largest economy is struggling to revive demand this is coming when no other major economy is witnessing deflation as we discussed this would again contrib to the Vicious Cycle where less demand means less production and this means less jobs and ultimately dissatisfaction amongst the youth but amongst all these problems there is a major problem which is not the economy employment or GDP but something even more important and alarming in fact this Factor I'm talking about is so crucial that it has broken many countries and is still haunting many countries in the world and China's leaders are trying to find ways to battle what many economists have described as a demographic a 18:05 ticking Time Bomb this is none other than the population problem you see China has a population of 1.4 billion out of these a whopping 280 million are above the age of 60 so almost one in five are over the age of 60 in China in fact China is now home to the largest population of older people in the world unlike China countries like Japan South Korea and Italy and many other countries are facing this issue but unlike most countries where the major reason behind low fertility rates is higher cost to raise kids in China it's a completely different case youths of other countries did it of their own will but in China it was forced by the government with a Draconian policy called the one child policy China's population Grew From 540 million in 1949 to 969 million in 1980 although the population was growing 19:03 rapidly agricultural output in the late 1900s didn't keep up with this pace this simply meant that food production was insufficient to feed the entire population to control these exploding numbers and to avoid a hunger Rampage Across the Nation the one child policy was implemented in 1980 although this kept the population in control the consequences of this policy came to haunt China decades later later when the Aging population was growing at an alarming rate and there were not enough young people to replace them in fact according to a report by 2035 an estimated 400 million people in China will be over the age of 60 which will be almost 30% of the population this is so huge that this would be almost the entire current population of Japan South Korea Italy Canada and Russia all combined on top of that this policy even messed with demographics a lot of them 20:01 favored having a boy over a girl which led to a drastic mismatch in the maleo female ratio in China there are almost 35 million more men than women in China which has created multiple social and cultural issues this has made the competition for marriage even more intense much like the job market so as the older population increases the economy will go for a toss you might think does that make sense and in fact that would be great for them because you just mentioned that unemployment is high so if there would be less youngsters then even the competition would decrease right actually no because the declining population effect can snowball quickly for example Japan reported 20,000 fewer people in 2008 and this figure has since swelled to 831,687 Japanese prime minister fumio kashida even called this trend Japan's gravest crisis a research paper said that when the working age population shrinks so do 21:03 revenues of companies and ultimately the economy of the country this is because a country's workers are its most powerful consumers now I am not just assuming this we have multiple case studies where a correlation was observed between falling economy and Rising older population Japan is a very classic example of the same this chart shows the decline of the working age population in Japan as the country's working age population fell domestic consumption started declining and the number of Japanese firms on the Fortune 500 list started declining as well in fact according to the research paper the correlation between the decline in the working age population and Japanese firms leaving the global 500 was 94% after researching further I found that from 2000 to 2023 the Japanese firms in the Fortune 500 declin from 107 in the year 2000 to just 40 1 in 2023 22:00 this is almost a 62% decline in fact in the 60s and70s Japan had an average fertility rate of two which has now declined to just 1.3 as of the last decade and according to experts a fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman ensures a broadly stable population this even reflects in the GDP growth of Japan if we calculate average GDP growth from 2015 to 2023 it comes to just 6% statista data even predicts that this growth rate will fall to just 45% in 2029 similar is the case for South Korea the fertility rate is just around 1.1 10-year GDP growth averages to Just Around 2.5% and even in this case it is predicted to fall to just 2.03% in 2029 in fact this pattern has been observed for almost every other country with a falling population now you might argue that these countries 23:00 are growing slow because they've already grown so fast and that there's almost no room for growth right now and partly that is true but still they would have been far better than what they are today in terms of GDP growth if they would have maintained their population the US is a very classic example for the same the younger population is important because of two very important reasons number one a declining population means fewer people which results in less demand for goods and services this exerts a downward pressure on prices causing deflation when this happens the economic slumps or recessions are more likely this is what China is facing currently declining population affects the supply side of the economy as well as the demand side so generally on the supply side a decline in population results in reduction of Labor Supply and the production on the demand side declining population results in reduction in the demand of consumption goods and services and housing so the entire domestic market for the goods and 24:00 services just collapses and number two the country is left with fewer workers as more people retire leading to an imbalance where the government revenues from taxes fall while spending on retired people increases so what is China doing to tackle this problem China realized the magnitude of this problem and it decided to finally end the one child policy in 2016 maybe it was too late then and it had a good reason beginning in early 2016 all families were allowed to have two children the fertility rate in 2016 was 1.67 which improved to 1.69 in 2021 but it was still lower than the standard fertility rate of 2.1 this is why the CCP formally passed a law in August of 2021 which allowed married couples to have as many as three children but even after allowing three children the fertility rate reached to just 25:00 1.7% this has the same reasons why even the Koreans and the Japanese aren't having enough children the Chinese are concerned whether they would really be able to afford more children or not in fact Decades of messaging and policies promoting the idea of having only one child have made many people believe that having just one child is actually better maybe the situation would have been far better if the CCP wouldn't have implemented this policy or at least implemented something like a two child policy the one child policy not only disrupted China's economy but also had significant effects on its military China wants Russia to win the Ukrainian War this is far from obvious since the CCP is trying to sound as neutral as possible when we read these statements from the Chinese government's website on Ukraine we see talk about sovereignty peace talks and resolving the humanitarian crisis not exactly what a bunch of dach Putin supporters would say 26:00 but what if I tell you that this this is just a facade to hide China's true intentions secretly the country is giving Russia some of the most important resources for the war China is Russia's biggest gunpowder supplier single-handedly keeping Russia's ammunition factories afloat meanwhile it provides no gunpowder to Ukraine or its allies who are in Desperate shortage but this should come as no surprise shortly before The Invasion started Putin visited Xi Jinping and signed a No Limits partnership in their joint document the two criticized the US by name six times and opposed NATO's expansion later reports from the New York Times suggested that China already knew about the invasion before it signed the document understandably this has led to fears that China would help Putin in the Ukraine war after all their joint documents said and and I quote there are no forbidden areas of 27:02 cooperation although Beijing still refrains from giving direct lethal Aid it's definitely clear on which side it's on as the biggest competitor of the United States China kind of likes what Russia is doing so let's take a deep dive into how China is secretly trying to make Russia win and why it would want to do this in the first place this Factory in Pennsylvania is making Ukraine's most important ammunition 155 mm rounds are basically giant bullets used in artillery guns military officials estimate that Ukraine needs 200,000 a month to actually fight this war to keep on part with Russia and US capacity at somewhere around 28,000 biggest problem is we don't have enough of ammunition for it US Secretary of State Anthony blinkin has warned that China May soon provide lethal assistance in the form of weapons and ammunition to Russia's War in Ukraine first off let's look at the situation in Ukraine over 28:01 the last year or so the conflict has turned into an artillery War the front lines entered into a stalemate and very little territory changed hands a lot of attention is now going to the artillery campaigns which are doing heavy damage on both sides with artillery you can damage enemy positions armor and supply lines at relatively low cost and eventually just drain them out currently about 70% of the losses in the conflict ICT are because of artillery shelling eventually a breakthrough could be possible if either Russia or Ukraine runs out of resources or soldiers Putin is betting that Ukraine will lose this war of attrition and he has some of the numbers on his side first of all he has way more people to send to the battlefield because of Russia's larger population winning with sheer amount of Manpower is a proven tactic in Russia going back to World War II but what's really scary is the ammunition advantage that Russia has currently the Russian military is firing seven times more artillery shells than Ukraine according to the Ukrainian 29:05 Deputy defense minister this is due to an increasing ammunition shortage on the Ukrainian side it wasn't always like this though as it has changed significantly over the last months in the summer of 2023 Ukraine was using around 7,000 artillery shells a day much more than Russia's 5,000 but at the beginning of 2024 Ukraine UK only used 2,000 rounds a day while Russia doubled its figure to 10,000 there's a little bit of nuance though as Ukraine's artillery has proven to be much more effective Ukraine has been destroying four Russian howitzers for every one it loses because it has a technology Edge it can trace down and Destroy enemy firing positions way more effectively but the scary thing about Russia is that it doesn't care if Ukraine is four times more effective Russia will just just fire five times more shells and there's nothing much Ukraine's allies can do about this the 30:04 NATO alliance isn't able to produce enough ammunition which resulted in dwindling supplies for Ukraine Russia is producing three times more artillery shells than the United States and Europe combined the nation makes 250,000 shells a month or about 3 million shells every year in comparison the us only has a monthly production of 28,000 the process of upgrading this capacity will take quite a while because the infrastructure is simply not there yet to get to Russia's level of production the West needs billions of dollars and several months if not years of construction the US plans to increase its shell production to 100,000 a month in 2025 but it's not clear whether this will be in time to help Ukraine NATO could run out of its ammunition Supply with disastrous consequences the United States has already sent hundreds of thousands of 31:00 shells from its strategic stockpiles to Ukraine all over the world Washington has ammunition reserves to back its military presence abroad and these reserves formed a big part of Ukraine's Supply in 2023 the US transferred 300,000 shells from South Korea and 300,000 shells from Israel to Ukraine the problem is that this can't go on forever the US doesn't want to become too weak in other regions meaning that this Lifeline could be nearing its end what makes ammunition problems even worse is that the resources for Shell production are in short supply the most concerning shortage has to be with gunpowder according to the French President macron this is one of the key problems that the NATO alliance has at the moment he said that quote powder is really what's lacking today the European Union promised to supply 1 million shells to Ukraine but it could really only deliver about 30 % of this number the lack of gunpowder is one of the main causes for this failure without gunpowder you can't create the 32:06 propellant charge needed for artillery rounds NATO's shortage of gunpowder can be traced back to one chemical called Nitro cellulose or gun cotton this is where China comes in according to an EU International Market commissioner China is a major gun cotton supplier to the West well at least it used to be just a few months ago the country suddenly halted its gun cotton exports to the West you would almost think that it purposely tried to create an ammunition shortage although the West does have its own nitr cellulose facilities in the US Germany and France it's not enough to keep up with demand and these suspicions of China causing the shortage get even worse last year the New York Times uncovered huge gunpowder exports from a private Chinese company to Russia the state-owned company called poly Technologies exported gunpowder to Russia ammunition factories and not just like a little bit it was enough gunpowder to produced at least 80 33:04 million rounds of ammunition so this proves two things China has an enormous gunpowder manufacturing capability and it would rather sell it to Russia than to Ukraine poly Technologies claims that the gunpowder wasn't for military purposes but I mean you can decide for yourself if you think that's believable Russia itself produces very little Nitro cellulose so it desperately needs Imports to maintain its gunpowder Supply along with Turkish companies reselling Western made gun cotton to Russia China has played a vital role in providing this resource according to a British Ukrainian research group China is now the largest Nitros supplier to Russia it uncovered 72 deliveries worth of over $10 million and if you think about it the true Chinese supply of nitrocellulose might even be bigger if China supplies Russia with gunpowder it would want to do this as secretly as possible the US and the European Union have already sanctioned several Chinese firms because 34:05 of their role in the Ukraine war and to prevent this China might disguise its gun cotton exports as normal civilian products this aligns with information from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence several us intelligence briefings were leaked on a Discord server showing some very interesting information an intercept of Russian intelligence revealed a deal with with China to supply lethal military aid the only provision was that the trade would have to remain secret if the deal went through there may be even more gun cotton exports that we don't know about understandably this has raised some alarm bells in Washington the US has warned China against helping Russia saying that there would be quote unquote real costs but these developments don't come as a huge surprise there are many other ways China is helping its nor neighbor China exports large amounts of dual use technology to Russia things 35:02 that can have both civilian and Military applications for example one Russian company bought 100,000 bulletproof vests and 100,000 helmets from a manufacturer in Shanghai obviously these enormous quantities can only have one goal to equip the Russian soldiers but it's very hard to prove this because they get labeled as things like Airsoft helmets other du us products include Ceramics drones and thermal optics Ceramics are not only used for mugs and plates and so on but also for military purposes because the material is so strong you can find it in armored vehicles and body armor in 2023 China sold $227 Million worth of Ceramics to Russia up from the 135 million the year before and one thing is for sure this is not because teacups have gotten so popular in Moscow a noteworthy detail is that China only exported $5 million of Ceramics to Ukraine in 36:04 2023 this was less than a quarter of the $23 million before the war once again China is favoring Russia we can also see this in the exports of drones which are also dual use products you can use them just for fun or to discover enemy positions and drop grenades on them China has long been a drone supplier to Russia with $5 million worth of exports in 2023 but for Ukraine it's a different story China sold Ukraine $15 million worth of drones in 2021 but that came crashing down to just $3 million in 2023 Ukraine used to get cheap drones from China and then turn them into useful military tools however China noticed this and restricted its drone exports to Ukraine this was to prevent them being used for quote unquote non-p peaceful purposes meanwhile Beijing turns a blind eye to Russian drone purchases even when they are explicitly 37:03 labeled for special military operations semiconductors are another Chinese dual use export to Russia which surged from 200 million to $500 million after the war interestingly Hong Kong is also a part of this technology Lifeline to Russia it supplied $400 Million worth of chips in 2022 alone not only does this help Russia deal with the economic impact of the sanctions but it is also vital for many defense systems in Russian drones and tanks the ukrainians are finding increasingly more Chinese made Electronics China is also providing support on the logistic side of Russia's war effort in December of 2022 super heavy truck shipments to Russia were up by 1,1 143% you need those trucks to move heavy military equipment to the front lines and if we really dig deep we can find another way China is secretly supporting Russia I mean literally dig deep Russian Imports of shoveling equipment and 38:05 excavators from China were up 100 and 200% respectively although it doesn't seem obvious this is also dual use technology Russia is using these as trench digging equipment for the more than 600 M or around 1,000 km front line of course this is something that China gladly helped them with but the most most effective way that China is supporting Russia may be this with Machinery China is helping Russia to expand its military industrial base in 2023 90% of Russia's $900 million Machine Tool Imports came from China this bypasses sanctions from other Machinery exporters like Germany and the United States the Chinese products will be used to build Russia's War economy something that's worrying NATO Russia is rapidly increasing in its production capacity with 520,000 new people being 39:01 employed in its defense manufacturing since the start of the war and through trade and gun cotton and dual use products Russia can also rely on China's defense industry this makes its industrial base for a war of attrition even stronger both Xi Jinping and Putin realize that the conflict could be won this way because it's one of NATO's weak points NATO has the money but not the factory and the supply chains especially in the case of shells and gun cotton this is very unfortunate according to European Defense officials the few factories that it has are already running at full capacity it will take 3 years to increase gunpowder production because the supply lines for all kinds of raw materials are just not there yet it would be a huge blunder for NATO to lose the war in Ukraine over this but when we look at what's happened over the past 80 years this was bound to happen in terms of quality the West Military has gotten 40:01 more advanced than ever but in quantity there has been a huge decline during the world wars the US and European countries had huge factories for artillery shells and Gunpowder the US in particular proved itself as an industrial Powerhouse during World War II it created 41.4 billion rounds of small ammunition enough to shoot every human alive at the time 10 times yes they went a little bit over the top in US ammunition production alone 250,000 people were working in the 25 assembly plants and 23 propellant and explosive plants in total ammunition factories were the size of New York City Philadelphia and Chicago combined but after the World Wars ended the United States and especially Europe lost a lot of their military industrial capabilities this was driven by a decrease in spending which made largescale ammunition production un feasable governments and defense manufacturers didn't want to invest in expensive factories when we look at these charts of German French and 41:05 British defense spending as a percentage of GDP it becomes obvious they went from spending four to 7% of GDP on their militaries in 1960 to somewhere between 1 and 2% now ultimately this meant that they didn't Place enough orders for ammunition and after all why would they there seem to be no threat anymore after the Cold War war ended so military expenditures were just a waste of money and if things go really South there's always the protection of the United States under the NATO alliance the US retained some of its military industrial power as it still has the strongest military in the world but for America the priority anymore wasn't to fight Wars with huge front lines and large artillery campaigns after the world wars the US didn't really fight enemies with similar capabilities in AQ irq and Afghanistan the opposing armies were smaller and less sophisticated that's how it ended up with a monthly shell production of just 28,000 more wasn't 42:06 really necessary as a result the US and NATO were a little bit surprised with the current war in Ukraine a war of attrition with just more than a 600 mile about 1,000 km long front line hasn't been fought in decades just for comparison one day in Ukraine is an entire month in Afghanistan in terms of am consumption to fight the proxy war with Russia NATO needs to adapt something that takes a long time by providing resources and Machinery China is giving its Ally the means to take advantage of this with a larger military production quantity Moscow has a bigger chance of achieving a victory now that we know how China is involved in the war on Ukraine we can move on to why it is even chosen to do so there are a few reasons why China would want Russia to sustain or even win the war in Ukraine the most obvious reason is perhaps the Taiwan War 43:02 scenario Russia's proxy war with the NATO alliance depletes the West resources which is exactly what China needs for a possible attack on Taiwan most experts agree that China isn't able to invade Taiwan at the moment because of strong us defenses in the area but now the West needs to give all of its attention to Ukraine which has a direct effect on East Asia there is currently a 19 billion doll arms sales backlog of Taiwanese orders for US aircraft and tanks this is partially because America has sent so much equipment to Ukraine when China sends gunpowder to Russia it will enable the Russian military to destroy even more americanmade equipment this will worsen the arms sales backlog to Taiwan Additionally the Ukraine war can also have a more subtle effect on the Taiwan War scenario a NATO defeat on a European Battlefield would have huge consequences it could demoralize and weaken the alliance giving China an advantage in Taiwan the NATO allies may 44:04 not want to get into another costly conflict with huge Economic Consequences apart from the Taiwan Invasion there are more geopolitical motives to take in mind China now has a lot of influence in Russia due to the war perhaps reaching excessive levels after the sanctions hit China has stepped in to become the biggest trade partner of Russia in 2023 bilateral trade between the two had a record $240 billion half of Russia's oil and petroleum exports now go to China and Russia has become China's largest crude oil supplier liquefied natural gas exports to China have jumped 47% in 2023 and Russia is selling record amounts at the moment even though energy revenues are down China together with India is providing a lifeline for this crucial Russian industry and for the import market China is just as important as you 45:03 can see on this chart Russia's Imports nearly haved following the invasion this was mainly because of sanctions from the European Union which was Russia's biggest import partner at the time but now Imports are back to their usual levels China is the sole reason for this increase with about 70% of Russia's Imports coming from the country right now Russia is buying so much from Chinese companies that shipping containers are piling up the Imports include large amounts of raw materials chemicals and industrial goods like Machinery things that Russia needs after the sanctions basically China has been a lifesaver for Russian Industries on top of that half of the Chinese goods are consumer oriented including fashion brands or cars since 2019 Chinese car sales in Russia have increased by 900% but with these growing economic ties there is one thing that stands out for Russia China is an economic Lifeline being both the biggest Import and Export 46:04 partner but for China the story's a little bit different in 2023 Russia made up only 3.4% of China's exports and 5.5% of imports the economic relations are so unbalanced that some argue that Russia has become a Chinese vassal state but there's one catch if China wants to retain its influence Ence at Russia the current regime must stay in power Putin needs to win the war by getting at least some territory or otherwise he will lose his support starting a war and then losing it is never received well by the populace so to wrap it all up China is far from neutral in the Ukraine war although the country likes to say it only wants peace it has way too many reasons to be on Putin's side as we've uncovered China is already helping its neighbor through massive gunpowder exports dual use products and Machinery 47:02 the gunpowder trade in particular is fueling Russia's war effort this cooperation could turn out to be very successful because the two strategic Partners have found a weakness in NATO's industrial capacity this was Hong Kong Just 4 years ago millions of people took to the street to protest against the CCP and to fight for Hong Kong's Freedom tension turns to turmoil at the Hong Kong legislature people of Hong Kong TR to fight was to gain the basic human rights so um we need to stand for what we want and keep going on the number of 48:02 protesters kept growing by the day the movement reached every corner of the world and it seemed like for the first time in forever that the will of the people may actually win they have been corrupting our system for a very long time and uh they um taking back many of our rights well people are afraid people are also angry about this extradition treating so everyone is coming out not just Hong kongers once we are using the quot if we burn you burn with us then we all kind of just forgot about it but the CCP and xiin ping didn't in fact this provided XI with the perfect opportunity to do what he always wanted ever since then the CCP just kept chipping away at Hong Kong freedom and Independence in fact this operation was so successful that in June of 2022 just 2 years after the protests xijinping 49:05 held a Victory Parade in Hong Kong celebrating ccp's Victory against Hong Kong's Freedom Fighters during a small speech he said that after the Wind and Rain Hong Kong has risen From the Ashes what he really meant was that all of the resistance to China's central government rule was knocked down so today let's go over how the CCP took over Hong Kong while the whole world was distracted before we start YouTube was recently ordered to block Hong Kong protest videos in May of 2024 but at the end of the day people not talking about what's going on in Hong Kong makes the ccp's life a lot easier so I'm sure this video is not going to farewell in the algorithm so if you can just take a second and hit that like button below it'll help me out out tremendously thanks so much guys now let's start with the obvious 50:01 question why did this territory have an independent government from China in the first place the story actually begins in the 19th century where the Chinese emperor agreed that Britain could lease an area on the Chinese Coast or rather the emperor really had little choice in the matter the concession of these Coastal territories was forced into the peace treaty after the first and second Opium Wars basically Britain was selling drugs to the Chinese and the Chinese emperor didn't appreciate this the addiction problem was getting out of hand because eventually 90 million out of the 300 million Chinese were hooked on opium on top of that the Opium Imports were causing a significant economic drain China and Britain fought two Wars over this drug trade and in the second one France also joined the fight against China because the Western militaries had a military Edge they were winning the war and could enforce their terms in the peace treaty at the end of 51:01 the first Opium War in 1842 Britain took control over Hong Kong Island on the 1st of July 1898 after the second Opium War the British got a 99-year lease on Hong Kong Island and the surrounding new territories before this period of British rule the area was far from the Metropolis as we know it today it was mostly occupied by fishermen and there was some smallscale trade this all changed in the 19th and 20th Century though Hong Kong's population skyrocketed from a few thousand to more than 6 million the city became an international trade Hub and one of the most prominent cities in East Asia this was due to its free port and its connections with the rest of the vast British Empire in its first years Hong Kong remained an open opium Port but it was also a trade hub for tea and silk after a brief but disastrous period of 52:00 Japanese Occupation during World War II The Colony returned to Britain where the mainland of China was still struggling under rule H Kong's free market economy could make progress much fter AIT in the 1950s the area had booming textile industry and later it also became an Electronics exporter Hong Kong was one of the four Asian tigers together with South Korea Singapore and Taiwan who made rapid economic progress between 1950 and 1990 this period of British rule has a lasting impact until today as the English language and parts of Western culture remain in the city but we should also mention the downsides of the colonial era not everyone was happy with colonial rule and there was a lot of social unrest there were riots in 1956 1966 1967 and 1981 Hong Kong was the last substantial British col and many felt that the days of European colonialism were over when the lease was coming to an end in 1997 Britain agreed 53:04 to return the city to China there was only one problem though in a second we'll get into that right now let's quickly talk about some new changes to YouTube I'm sure some of you guys have noticed that whenever you go to your homepage on YouTube you get some videos recommended from channels that are extremely new here's an example this change is relatively new and it actually provides a perfect opportunity for new channels to get started and grow quickly in fact many channels have used this exact thing to grow an audience in the last 12 months they have gotten millions of views and made thousands of dollars from them in fact there are millions of faceless YouTube channels making content and earning ad Revenue in just the last 3 years YouTube has paid out $70 billion to creators that's around $60 million every single day so if you're someone who's interested in starting a YouTube channel right now is the perfect time that's why we've launched a completely 54:01 free 7-Day email crash course on how to start and grow a faceless YouTube channel if that's something you're interested in you can sign up now for free by clicking the link in the description or scanning the QR code on the screen all right now let's get back to the topic at hand when the lease was coming to an end in 1997 Britain agreed to return the city to China there was only one problem though China was ruled by the Chinese Communist Party the authoritarian ideology of the Chinese government could be a threat to the people of Hong Kong that's why the UK struck a deal with the then Paramount leader Jang zamin to secure 50 years of free market capitalism and political freedoms in the city this came at a time when the Socialist market economy started to come up in China and various special economic zones were created so the economic freedoms that Hong Kong enjoyed weren't that unique but what stood out was the political status of the territory until 2047 the city will have its own legislative executive and 55:03 judicial powers this includes its own currency Financial policies education system Etc the separate political system is formulated in the basic law Hong Kong's own mini Constitution it says that the Hong Kong government should eventually be selected by free and fair elections there was one provision though the implementation of this democracy should follow the quot quote unquote principle of gradual and orderly progress through mechanisms like an election committee Hong Kong was never a true democracy and over the last decades it's become clear that it never will be the CCP has been chipping away at the city's unique freedoms and Hong kongers got less and less say over their own government but before we go into how the CCP is enforcing its control over Hong Kong we first need to understand why it gave the city its freedom in the first place after all Beijing had the right to just take over the territory in one go 56:01 back in 1997 but the independence of Hong Kong actually has benefits for the mainland the city is the international Gateway for China for foreign investment and Finance in 2022 More than 70% of China's utilized foreign direct investment came from Hong Kong reaching $137 billion in a single year this has gained steam over the last two decades now these billions aren't coming from Hong Kong itself with a GDP of $360 billion it can't possibly send 137 billion a year worth of Investments to China most of the money actually comes from financial institutions based in other countries who use Hong Kong as a conduit for China this has to do with Hong Kong's unique Financial system although Singapore overtook it in 2022 it used to be Asia's Financial hub and the third biggest Financial Center in the world the reason it's so popular is that the city has its 57:02 own Financial regulations and currency which makes it attractive for foreign investors both institutions and Retail investors prefer not to put their money directly into China because of the risks associated with it it's not really a free market economy so there's always the chance that the CCP intervenes also the Chinese government doesn't really welcome foreign investors on the mainland in order to invest directly you need licenses such as the qualified foreign Institutional Investor and even after you obtain such a license after a long bureaucratic process you are still subject to strict CCP guidelines because this is such a hassle much of the investment goes through the Hong Kong stock connect and bond connect markets these are Financial schemes for Hong Kong investors which make it easy to access the shinin and Shanghai stock exchanges what makes Hong Kong even more appealing as a financial Gateway is the currency 58:02 situation in order to buy Chinese uan denominated assets with US Dollars going through Hong Kong is by far the easiest way the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the US dollar which makes transactions very stable meanwhile the Chinese Yuan and the US dollar aren't fully convertible due to Capital restrictions however it's possible to transfer your US Dollars into Hong Kong dollars and and then convert them into Chinese yuan in Hong Kong this setup is all on purpose of course for the Chinese government it's a way to get foreign cash without being directly exposed to International currency markets this Shields it from a lot of financial instability and potential crises Hong Kong's strategic location in the greater Bay Area the GBA in short only helps with its function as an International Bank for China the area houses around 86 million people with a combined GDP of around $ 1.9 trillion this includes the third and fifth biggest cities in China by GDP namely kuang shao in shenen there are a 59:06 lot of booming Enterprises nearby and all of them need investment and Loans to keep growing this financial incentive was one of the main reasons why the CCP didn't completely take over the city in 1997 as a strategic conduit Hong Kong has been one of the key drivers of China's economic rise over the past decades however Hong Kong's political freedoms didn't fit into China's interests perhaps it was too dangerous for the CCP to have a beat of fre speech and democracy right next door as the citizens in the mainland dangerous ideas in 1991 Hong Kong H first legislative election in operation of the split with the UK there were two camps in this election the pro-democracy side pushing for more democratic reforms and the pro Beijing side which sought closer ties with the mainland and the CCP the 1:00:01 pro-democracy side won in a landslide the biggest party was the United Democrats of Hong Kong led by Martin Lee aka the father of democracy slowly but surely though the pro Beijing Camp began to gain political power and it wasn't exactly fair play to understand this we have to look a bit closer at Hong Kong's political system after 1997 the most important man in Hong Kong is the chief executive in some ways similar to the president in the US but there's one big difference the chief executive isn't chosen through a popular vote but via an election committee and only part of this committee is elected by the people the rest of the committee consists of representatives from various sectors businesses professional groups and political organizations in other words a mix of special interest groups the same holds true for Hong Kong's legislative Council the leg Co in short this Council approves laws and budgets and keeps the executive branch of the government in check kind of similar to the US Congress but the legco is also 1:01:05 fundamentally different in how it's elected under the initial electoral system 10 out of 60 seats were determined by the same election committee we talked about earlier half of the seats were chosen by functional constituencies a group of representatives from special interest groups only 20 out of the 60 seats were actually voted on by the public to this day non-elected Representatives have a lot of influence on the elections this whole setup might sound a bit vague but I mean that's exactly the point it has created an intentional loophole for the CCP to get political say in Hong Kong you see many businessmen and sectors are on the pro Beijing side and it's no wonder China is Hong Kong's main trading partner and Hong Kong is a nation dependent on trade trade in goods and services flowing through the country is worth nearly four times GDP many of the non-elected representatives from businesses and professions benefit from this with their political power they're 1:02:04 obviously choosing a pro-establishment candidate we should also take into account that it's much easier to influence these special interest groups compared to normal voters the CCP does this through the Hong Kong liaison office which is the party's Hub in the city the building looks like you'd expect it to a big glass and concrete Tower straight out of George Orwell's 1984 the office is responsible for promoting the mainland's interests and it has very close ties with special interest groups and pro Beijing politicians it organizes and funds the major pro-establishment parties and it manages their electoral campaigns the liaison office even owns various media Outlets including three prob Beijing newspapers and Hong Kong's biggest book publishing company however its most important job is lobbying the non-elected representatives to vote for the pro Beijing party there's a severe lack of transparency so this could involve offering economic incentives or possibly even just bribes the effects of 1:03:04 this flawed electoral system showed in the 1998 legislative election the pro-democracy side won 2third of the popular vote but only got onethird of the seats the following elections had similar results where the government wasn't really representing what the people voted for a lot of people got frustrated because of this since the Hong Kong basic law promises a true democracy sometime in the future when it looked like the CCP wouldn't allow that to happen the clashes began there were already annual protests with the July 1st marches marking the day of the Handover to China but in 2023 it got to a whole another level half a million people took part in that Year's March China coration government tried to implement Corporation making acts of treason and secession against the CC P illegal because of the immense push back the law was put on hold and didn't get implemented that year but in 2005 things 1:04:04 got heated again the prob beian Government tried to implement a new electoral system which honestly didn't change much the representatives would hold their power and nothing was really done to achieve a democracy the pro-democracy side demanded more than just a facade in December of 2005 tens of thousands of people took took to the streets in protest of this ultimately the proposed reform didn't get passed partially because of public pressure this only postponed the problem though as the public still didn't have the Electoral reform it was promised China intended to keep it that way for a while in 2007 it ruled that Hong Kong couldn't directly elect its leaders until 2017 and its legislative Council until 2020 the pro-democracy and pro Beijing parties together with the liaison office Ed long talks to see what could be achieved but some legislators were fed up with the way things were going and resigned in order to trigger an election 1:05:05 they saw this as a deao referendum in order to let the people voice their opinion on Democracy the plan kind of failed with a low voter turnout and criticism from the other parties there seemed to be some slight progress in 2010 with a new electoral reform that actually passed more sectors were represented in the election committee and through direct and district-based voting people got more electoral power over the legco but this reform was more of an appeasement than actual democracy the following elections had similar results because the non-elected representatives continued to have a large say still the people of Hong Kong had hoped that democracy would eventually come in 2017 that is until August of 2014 the CCP revealed its proposal for the 2017 chief executive election and it was quite disappointing basically the 1:06:00 people of Hong Kong would be allowed to directly choose their preferred candidate except that each candidate needs approval from a new committee this committee was a similar idea as the election committee as it consisted of the same special interest groups it had people representing businesses professions communities and political groups there were even people tied to the CCP in this committee basically you had the same system guaranteeing CCP influence only in a different format this angered many people and triggered the 2014 umbrella movement for months on end starting in September students blocked major roads and intersections in protest but this is the movement where the pro beijan government showed its true face the police used tear gas on the protesters the pro Beijing site even used criminal gangs to attack dissonant in what are called Triad attacks this was a watershed moment which turned the political debate into a conflict many young people turned against the government meanwhile the proban camp saw 1:07:04 the protest as a violation of the rule of law instigated by western actors legislators understood the public pressure though and opted out of the proposed electoral reform once again nothing much changed and the government remained close to the CCP there was a return to stability for the next few years but none of the divisions were solved it was bound to go wrong again which it did in 2019 the Hong Kong government proposed a controversial extradition Bill allowing for fugitives to be transferred to China maau and Taiwan what this really meant was that the enemies of the CCP could expect to spend the rest of their life in a Chinese prison basically an extradition agreement would mean that people in Hong Kong are subject to the ccp's laws because this absolutely demolished any hopes of free speech many students took to the streets again and others followed 1:08:02 the first pro-democracy protests began in March of 2019 and they continued for more than a year on several occasions hundreds of thousands of people were protesting at the same time the biggest protest occurred on the 16th of June 2019 where organizers estimated 2 million people went to the streets that would be about 30% of the entire City's population one of the most violent protests was the storming of the legislative Council complex in July of 2019 people broke through glass walls and doors and entered the government building in order to prevent the extradition bill from being passed the Damage Done during the storming led to a shutdown of the complex for 3 months they succeeded in their objective as the chief executive announced the bill was quote unquote dead and it was delayed indefinitely even though the immediate threat of the extradition bill was over the protest continued with the momentum buildup people demonstrated for other demands too there were five to be precise the first one had to do with the definitive withdrawal of the extradition 1:09:06 bill so that the legislative process couldn't be resumed protesters also wanted the current chief executive to resign and a new directly elected government the third and fourth demands were accountability for the police behavior during the protests and the release of protesters arrested due to their political beliefs additionally they demanded that peaceful protests shouldn't be treated as riots by the government inspired by the Baltic way protests of 1989 where people in the Baltic states formed a human chain of 2 million people Hong kongers organized the Hong Kong way protest in August of 2019 an estimated 210,000 people formed a chain of more than 30 miles about 50 km because of the large backing among students there were also huge protests on University campuses this created clashes between student protesters and Riot police at the Chinese University of Hong Kong the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Hong Kong 1:10:06 Polytechnic University the last one was occupied by the pro democracy Camp which led to a police Siege and storming protesters threw bricks and petrol bombs and the police used tear gas and rubber bullets there were also cases of police brutality exactly the thing people were protesting against an example of this was the prince Edward Metro station incident where the police indiscriminately attacked passengers and arrested protesters still there were also people opposed to the protesters and in favor of the government they organized prob Beijing protests such as the Safeguard Hong Kong rally some were wearing blue ribbons in support of the police force the two groups of protesters often clashed people tore down pro-democracy posters and graffiti one extremist even attacked protesters with a knife others rammed their cars into crowds of demonstrators there were also instances where villagers and supposed gang members ambushed groups 1:11:04 with wooden sticks and metal rods the most well-known incident was the 2019 Yuan long attack where a group of men in white t-shirts attacked protesters at a metro station causing tens of injuries they could have been vigilante groups who felt that the police weren't hard-handed enough but the more likely explanation is that these people were hired by the pro Beijing Camp either way it was clear who side the police were on despite 24,000 emergency calls the police force didn't show up on time and made no arrests but in all fairness the pro-democracy side was also not innocent a pro Beijing lawmaker called Junius hoe was stabbed and his family's Graves desecrated this was allegedly a retaliation for the one long attacks where the lawmaker would have played a role and a political citizens of Hong Kong were also victims a 70-year-old resident died because of a fatal head injury when pro-democracy protesters 1:12:02 were throwing bricks amidst all this chaos Hong Kong held local elections in November of 2019 many people saw this as a referendum about the extradition Bill the voter turnout was record-breaking with 71% of registered voters casting their vote and the pro-democracy parties won with a historical Landslide they got nearly 90% of the total seats in the direct elected district council with 388 out of 452 seats the following covid pandemic drew the attention away for a few months but in May of 2020 perhaps the most important development of all happened following the election result the Chinese authorities began drafting a new law to be implemented in the Hong Kong basic law and yes the CCP can actually do that there's some sort of intentional loophole where China can add a law to Hong Kong's Constitution by way of promation sounds complicated but it's 1:13:02 actually relatively simple when the chief executive publishes the new legislator in the government newspaper the law is immediately in effect there's no voting process and the chief executive is always a pro Beijing politician by Design so that's exactly what happened on the 21st of May 2020 suddenly there was a new National Security Law which made secession foreign interference terrorism and subversion against the central government illegal in other words it gave the CCP and the proban government more than enough room to arrest and criminalize any opposition by the way the CCP already tried to get this law through in 2003 right in the middle of the SARS outbreak funny how it always pushes these things during like a novel Corona virus outbreak perhaps it gives an excuse to prevent Mass protests as it will be a public health hazard anyway with these new powers that their disposal the proban government and the CCP continued with their Crackdown on 1:14:00 opposition in the next legislative election 12 candidates for the pro-democracy side were banned according to a government spokesman they sought secession from China and intervention from foreign governments with the new National Security Law those things have become illegal the Chinese authorities went even further in November of 2020 they passed a new resolution saying that the Hong Kong Executives can moove legislators in the legislative Council four sitting pro-democracy legislators were immediately disqualified and their 15 colleagues resigned in protest meanwhile the Hong Kong authorities used the national security law to crack down an activists and protesters since the imposition of the law 299 people have been arrested this includes a lot of high-profile people who were obviously the first Target of the CCP Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow both activists turned politicians had to spend some time in jail for violating National Security 1:15:00 another arrest which made headlines all over the world is that of Jimmy lie he was a businessman and politician and one of the most powerful pro-democracy figures in the whole city Jimmy lie got rich with a clothing retail company and moved into the media business later his Media company NeXT digital became the largest media company in Hong Kong largely due to the popular Apple Daily newspaper this news Outlet was very critical of the Chinese government as was Jimmy lie the billionaire was one of the main donors to the Democratic party in Hong Kong Li was obviously a big Target for the CCP and he was arrested in 2020 and jailed in 2021 as of writing this video he's been locked up for 3 years and is facing a life sentence when the leaders of the resistance movement are removed and jailed the rest of the protesters lose confidence in this way the CCP managed to Crush any hopes of a return to democracy with the reduced public resistance beijing's plan continued before the 2021 legislative 1:16:04 elections the Chinese authorities made some sweeping reforms only quote unquote Patriots loyal to China could run and the number of directly elected seats was drastically reduced only 20 out of the 90 seats could be chosen by the people and the directly elected District councils had significantly less power in the new system now it was clear to everyone Hong Kong wasn't a democracy anymore but a vassel state to the CCP for the last 3 years or so this situation continued in June of 2022 XI jingping visited Hong Kong for the 25th anniversary of the Handover but it was also something like a Victory Parade for him since the political opposition was effectively stopped it was also his first visit outside of mainland China after the start of of the co pandemic during a small speech he said that after the wind and the rain Hong Kong has 1:17:01 risen From the Ashes what he really meant was that all of the resistance to China's central government rule was knocked down a few days later xiin ping was there at the inauguration of the new chief executive this was after a sham election with a voter turnout of just 30% and only Pro Beijing candidates in his inauguration speech xijinping said that he was happy only Patriots could hold office in Hong Kong the pro Beijing government continued its Crackdown on opposition arresting tons of people in 2024 people are still being prosecuted for their involvement in the 2019 protests many activists fled the country but even there they weren't safe the Hong Kong police have offered a million Hong Kong dollars and bounties for five activists overseas as if the current legislation wasn't effective enough in silencing opposition the Hong Kong legislators passed another National Security Law in March of 2024 it's 1:18:02 called article 23 and it's even more authoritarian than the previous one when people are convicted of treason Insurrection and sabotage together with external actors they can now get a life sentence in jail collusion with external forces for any other crime gives you 2 to 3 years Espionage and sabotage can be punished with up to 20 years in prison and inciting hatred against the CCP is now punished with a 10year imprisonment the last one is perhaps the most dangerous of all as it's the vaguest and can be applied to everyone disagreeing with the party if we look into the future the picture is also not very bright the one country two systems framework will come to an end in 2047 exactly 50 years after the Handover to China as flawed and dysfunctional as it is the two systems idea was arguably better than direct CCP Rule and it doesn't look like the CCP will grant Hong Kong an additional few years of 1:19:04 self-governance because of the increased competition with the US Beijing has become less tolerant towards things like democracy and Free Speech the risk that an independent Hong Kong will align itself with the US is just too big so with the knowledge that Hong Kong has only 23 years left there are only two things that the city's inhabitants can do do they can either flee using a British Visa program or they can wait and see what life is like under an authoritarian regime a scandal rocks New York as news has come out that there has been a Chinese agent influencing New York's politics for a decade former Aid to New York Governor Kathy hok Linda sun has been arrested and charged with acting as a Chinese agent during her time in government goal of the agent was to push CCP agendas to block relations between the US and Taiwan an unsealed copy of the indictment revealed she was was charged with violating and conspiring to violate the foreign agents registrations act Visa fraud alien smuggling and money laundering 1:20:01 conspiracy son's husband Chris hoe was also arrested on money laundering conspiracy conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misusing means of identification well the former Aid to governor hokel and Andre Cuomo has been arrested and now faces federal charges of acting as an agent for the Chinese government all right Linda son and her husband were taken into custody at their Long Island home this morning and both went before a judge this afternoon as you can imagine the video revealing hidden agendas by China is not good for the CCP in response to this Bots work hard to drown out our videos making it harder for you guys to find them if you give this video a like you can help our content push back up and we can keep bringing you guys news like this let's get into the video prosecutors on the case alleged that sun used her role in government to push Chinese agenda by blocking meetings with Taiwanese officials during her time under Governor Andrew Cuomo using her influence in speech writing she's also accused of steering messaging away from criticism of beijing's persecution of weager mus Muslims although the 65-page indictment against the couple is looking scary the two pleaded not guilty with their attorney describing the charges as perplexing bonds have been set at 1.5 1:21:04 million for Sun and who was set at 500,000 with instructions for the two not to travel Beyond New York City Long Island Maine and New Hampshire in response to the allegations attorneys for son Jared Schaefer and Ken Abel released a statement we are disappointed by the filing of these charges which are inflammatory and appear to be the product of an overly aggressive prosecution we are also troubled by aspects of the government's in investigation as we said today in court our Claren is eager to exercise her right to a speedy trial and to defend against these accusations in the proper Forum a court of law okay so first we are going to take a deeper look at the case against Linda Sun as we explore the accusations that Sun's attorneys have called perplexing son is accused of violating the foreign agents registration act by failing to register as a foreign agent with the attorney general one of Sun's biggest missions was to block relations between New York and Taiwan son would do this by blocking Taiwanese representatives from having meetings with the governor while shaping the governor's narrative on China an example of such an incident is in 2019 when she was informed during a banquet invitation that the Taiwanese president was supposed to visit New York City she 1:22:03 quickly alerted one of beijing's officials saying I sent you an email just in FYI I already blocked it in a bid to control and push the Chinese agenda Sun allegedly obtained unauthorized official New York state proclamations for Chinese government representatives and arranged meetings between CCP government delegations and New York officials in addition to all this prosecutors also said that sun and who operated more than 80 different messaging accounts including a WeChat message in which son is quoted telling a Chinese official I've done many things to make the relationship flourish on top of all of her political Antics son and her husband who are also facing money laundering charges prosecutors allege that proceeds from their scheme were used to purchase a 4.1 million property in Manhasset New York a $2.1 million condominium in Honolulu and a 2024 Ferrari her husband has also supposedly laundered funds through bank accounts in a relative's name while illegally using a relative's driver's license image next on the list are charges of Visa fraud and alien smuggling with claims that she provided fake invitation Letters From New York state officers offices to allow 1:23:01 Chinese government officials to enter the United States these letters work as immigration documents and assisted foreign citizens in entering the country unlawfully as if all of this was not enough the indictment also contains incriminating evidence of son's alleged Communications with Chinese officials in one incident she secretly included a Chinese official in a New York state government conference call about the covid-19 response in efforts to combat hate crimes against Asian Americans with a wrap sheet that long let's take a look at what someone was getting for all of her hard work before we jump into that I'm sure you guys can tell today's geopolitical world moves very fast and it's pretty much impossible to keep up with all the news that's why we launched Global Recaps a geopolitical newsletter that covers world news in a quick and simple way every day we send out an email directly to your inbox that covers the most important world news that you can read in less than 5 minutes best of all it's completely free and you can sign up now by using the link in the description or scanning the QR code on screen let's let get back to all that some was getting for her hard work for the CCP she was not doing all these things for free and the indictment has evidence that she received financial and economic benefits from China son 1:24:04 allegedly received travel benefits promotion for her friends businesses and employment for her cousin in China to sweeten the deal a little more she received exclusive tickets to popular events including a performance of the guango ballet at Lincoln Center and the Chinese National traditional Orchestra at carnegi Hall the deals also benefited her husband who who received millions of dollars to facilitate his business in China on top of all of these favors Sun also received non Jing style salted Ducks prepared by a high-ranking Chinese government officials personal chef who delivered them to her parents home this may seem unimportant and strange to note if you do not have the Chinese context the popular dish is a traditional meal from the region of naning with unique flavor and a special preservation method it is a delicacy and its recipe dates back to the 14th century besides how expensive it must have been to make receiving this as a part of the favors shows how closely tied sun was with the Chinese government official evidence shows that the first delivery of six Ducks was made on or about July 28th 2021 and six more were delivered on November 23rd 2021 all in all son and her husband became Rich from the work 1:25:03 they did on behalf of the Chinese government United States Attorney Bron P stated that the illicit scheme enriched the defendant's family to the tune of millions of dollars now some of you probably want to know more about who this Troublemaker is so we're going to get into Sun's background and her journey to New York politics Linda sun was born in 1983 and her family moved from China to the United States when she was five she later became a naturalized US citizen and received an undergraduate degree in political science from Barnard College after graduating with her master's degree in education from Columbia University Sun worked in the New York State's legislative branch holding a variety of positions including Chief of Staff in these early roles Sun focused on providing essential services to Immigrant constituents right from the onset it was clear that she had a heart for people like herself who were not indigenously from America Linda son's 13-year work tenure in New York began with her serving under Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2012 she began as a director of Asian-American Affairs and queen's representative and held other positions throughout the decade among her roles were big positions such as serving as a 1:26:01 director of external Affairs for Empire State development and chief diversity officer her final role before her downfall was her position as Deputy Chief of Staff under Governor Kathy hokel in October 2021 throughout her moves from different departments and administrations what remained consistent about Sun's career was her interest in Asian-American Affairs during Co Sun facilitated testing and vaccine delivery to asian-americans and during her time working with govern Governor hokel Sun pushed for a $10 million investment in mental health services in educational training aimed at reducing hate against asian-americans on the surface it seemed like sun was just a Chinese American advocating for her people her run was impressive and at some point she was the first Asian-American to have such a high position in the New York government over time the cracks began to show and her facade began to fall off slowly now we're going to go through key moments in her career highlighting where she began to lose the plot the first incident was in 2016 when sudden message to Chinese official to inform them the taipe economic and cultural representative office had invited Governor hokel to appear at an investment Summit in Washington the message read they sent 1:27:02 the invitation to another colleague trying to bypass me I'm working on it right now to resolve the issue it's all been taken care of satisfactorily this message shows that early on colleagues in her Department were beginning to suspect her in 2018 letters that sun was not authorized to sign were found to have forged versions of hcal signature these letters allowed a Chinese delegation from Hanan Province to come to the US to discuss economic Co operation with hok things got worse in 2019 when very incriminating messages were found between Sun and a Chinese official Sun wrote I very much value my relationship with the consulate and have done many things to make the relationship between the state and the consulate flourish during my tenure with politician 1 certainly I've managed to stop all relationships between the Teo and the state I have denied all requests from their office the Chinese official responded by thanking Sun for her help and referred to her as the most important Hub connecting us with politician 1 and his team around 2021 sun and who started getting sloppy and their spending started raising alarm Bells they began to purchase real estate valued at millions of dollars in Manhasset in New York what was more 1:28:03 suspicious was that the couple did not take out a loan or mortgage for these Hefty purchases from the outside it was clear that the couple's spending did not match their salaries and shortly before they started splurging who received a $2.1 million wire transfer from a PRC based account in his business partner's name what caught the couple out is that sun put the real estate purchases on her financial disclosure statements up until this Point her actions had just made the authorities suspicious but what she did in 2023 is what launched an investigation son emailed an unauthorized Proclamation from the New York governor's office that was supposed to be presented at a lunar New Year celebration the indictment states that son obtained this Proclamation from an office of correspondant employee outside ordinary channels and did not follow protocol by seeking supervisory authorization to create such a proclamation when she was questioned by her actions by the inspector General's office son initially played the denying game after she realized she was in hot soup she had admitted requesting the Lunar New Year Proclamation for a Chinese government official up until this point she had been getting away with murder but sun was finally fired in March 2023 in a statement to ABC News AI 1:29:04 small hok's press secretary stated we terminated her employment in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process even after her post was terminated son still tried to manipulate her position in August 2023 the Department of Labor had to send her a cease and desist letter for attending public and professional events claiming she was an agency official after this the investigation intensified and in June 2024 Federal investigators raided a home belonging to son and her husband in response to the madness both of son's previous bosses hok and kuo have had something to say Governor Kathy hokel called son's actions a betrayal of trust and claimed that she was absolutely shocked by everything the indictment lays out very clearly evidence that these actions taken by Linda's son were an absolute betrayal of the trust of two administrations in state government while former Governor kuum did not directly comment rich as a 1:30:01 party a spokesperson for kuo stated that while misson was promoted to Deputy Chief of Staff in the subsequent Administration during our time she worked in a handful of agencies and was one of many Community Liaisons who had little to no interaction with the governor finally we need to think about what this entire thing means for relations between China and the US this news coming out so close to the US elections has caused many concerns regarding how far China influences is the American electoral process the case allows us to see that the dragon in the East has a big part to play in US politics and its methods are not always direct and aggressive knowing China has many tricks up its sleeve is disturbing but knowing that these schemes are specifically trying to infiltrate us intelligence is scarier the center for strategic and International Studies csis has documented 224 instances of Chinese Espionage directed at the US from 200000 to March 2023 let us go back to 2018 when it was discovered that China's hand was in the CIA Jerry Chun Shing Lee a former CIA officer was caught retaining classified information that led to the dismantling of the cia's network of informance in China his work as a spy 1:31:03 began in 2010 when Chinese intelligence agents contacted him offering him money in exchange for secret information he was sentenced to 19 years in prison but the damage had already been done China's undercover work does not end there in reports of Chinese Nationals opening secret overseas police stations have emerged in 2023 two men were arrested for acting under the direction and control of the Chinese government government by setting up an international police station Harry Lu xan Wang and Chen jingping set up a front office that performed services such as helping Chinese citizens renew their Chinese driver's license under the radar the Manhattan Chinatown station was used to intimidate and harass fugitives and those critical of the Chinese government what is even more worrying is the fact that offices like this have sprouted up all over North America and Europe with reports that CCP uses the offices to monitor critics of the PRC as expected China is denying everything it maintains that these International police stations are are there to provide Chinese citizens with Services cases like Linda Suns Jerry chuning Le and Harry Luan Wang's are 1:32:01 proof of the existence of a larger Chinese spy Network that is running in countries all around the world very recently a Chinese spy by the name of Alice gu has finally been arrested in Indonesia she was on the run for weeks after being accused of spying for China during her term as a Filipino mayor reports like these should wake the world up and get every country looking into whether there is Chinese Espionage happening in their backyard a reality that China has to accept is that diplomatic tension that comes as a result of Sun's actions is going to undo some of the work that has been going into building trust with the us all Chinese officials are going to be treated with some disdain and diplomatic Protocols are probably going to be redone and there's definitely going to be stricter enforcement of foreign agent registration laws moving forward what is diplomacy going to look like in America while countries want to work well together incidents like this give open diplomatic channels a Bad Name all that we can hope is that America has learned a valuable lesson from this Scandal tighter security measures will definitely be implemented and the vetting process will be more thorough as we speak Washington is unraveling all that it knows in trying to untangle China's web of deception

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