Lead Poisoning Scandal Exploding, Trump Resuming Tariff War

Let's get back to the topic we were just discussing and continue talking about the Gansu lead poisoning incident. Why did it end up spreading all the way to Shanghai? Well, it all started on the morning of July 8th, when Xinhua Hospital, which is affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, admitted a child patient from Tianshui Gansu, who had abnormal blood lead levels. The head pediatrician at this hospital is Dr. Yan Chonghuai—let's just call him Professor Yan. When he was handling the admission procedures for the child, he noticed that the child's gums already showed a blue line, which is actually quite serious, right? He made a preliminary judgment that, in this case of lead poisoning, the exposure period must have been quite long—at least more than three months. Then we saw that at Xinhua Hospital, there was a pediatrician with the online name'Shrimp Mommy' who came forward with some inside information. She said that Shanghai is no longer accepting children suffering from lead poisoning from Tianshui, Gansu. Furthermore, this pediatrician, Shrimp Mommy, also said that it ’ s not that the doctors don ’ t want to accept these patients. It's that the hospital chickened out. The hospital has already come under pressure from higher authorities, and this pressure has been passed down to Professor Yan. Starting a few days ago, Professor Yan has not been allowed to accept any form of media interviews. And now, during the course of the research, they even have to write work reports on the treatment of these children to the Health Commission, right? That means they have to report on the progress of the treatment and so on. Thirdly, what we see now is that there are these kids, right? Some children already graduated from this training kindergarten in 2024—actually, some parents whose kids graduated last year have come forward to reveal things . Because as soon as they heard, wow, this kindergarten actually had a lead poisoning incident exposed. They immediately formed a group and went to Xi'an to get tested, and found that all of their blood lead levels were between sixty and one hundred twenty. In other words, most of them exceeded the standard. As you know, the normal value should be below one hundred, right? So, these children had actually already left kindergarten, and even after a whole year of normal metabolism and excretion, most of them were still found to have excessive levels. Although the degree of excess was n't extremely high, you can imagine how high their blood lead levels must have been a year ago. Then what we saw next was that in Shanghai, there was a hospital—actually, seventy hospitals, but in my view it should be Xinhua Hospital. Medical staff from Xinhua Hospital also submitted posts to overseas platforms to expose the situation, saying they just could n't keep quiet any longer. Because children from Tianshui came to their hospital for treatment, and he said he just could n't bear to watch anymore. On the 8th, they said a patient with lead poisoning arrived. He said, at the time, he guessed that this was a child brought from Tianshui by their parents. After arriving, the child was admitted to the hospital and blood was drawn for testing. At first, they tested for quite a few things—not just lead, but also other trace elements. Then they found that the most outrageous result was, of course, the blood lead level. The blood lead level was actually over 580. What does that even mean? We'll talk about that in a moment. Then, it turned out that not only was the blood lead level high, but the zinc level was also above the normal range. So, on that same day, they requested an immediate retest, because the levels were just too high. They were worried the results might not be accurate, so they specifically tested for lead and zinc again. By the 9th, the results came out, and they were consistent with the previous tests—the lead level was seriously over the limit. As for zinc, it was also above the standard. But the hospital kept making excuses to the parents, saying things like,'We are actively carrying out chelation treatment and waiting for the test results. They actually did n't report it, and did n't tell the parents. He said that, in fact, the report had come out a long time ago, but they just would n't tell them. Then the whistleblower said,'As a doctor, I really ca n't stand this, you know? The way the hospital is handling this is just disgusting and shameless. At the same time, he also attached the test report, exposing it to the public. So, as we just mentioned, this hospital should be the Xinhua Hospital we talked about earlier. The doctors at this hospital revealed that the students in Tianshui who were suffering from lead poisoning also had excessive levels of zinc in their bodies. Do you all remember? Speaking of zinc, some of you might recall, because less than two kilometers away from the involved salesperson is the lead-zinc ore transfer station of Baiyin Nonferrous Group. We actually mentioned this place specifically in a previous episode. This transfer station is actually suspected to be the real reason why the teachers and students at the kindergarten all suffered from lead poisoning. So up to now, we've seen that some parents have already come forward quietly to reveal information. Because right now, parents ca n't meet with the media, they might use some private channels to leak information. What are they leaking? Some parents have already quietly reached a private agreement with the Tianshui government. That is, the government is giving each of these families a compensation of 7,000 yuan. Of course, many netizens believe that these parents might be people who work within the system, right? If you work for the government, they can put pressure on you. If you do n't cooperate with the government, you might even lose your job, and so on. So, this might have forced them to compromise. At the same time, there was another condition attached Xi'an Central Hospital refunded all the medical expenses for the treatment to the parents. In other words, if you get treatment in Xi'an, it's free for you, plus you get this 7,000 yuan compensation In return, you should n't accept interviews or talk about the situation to the outside world anymore, and so That's basically what it means. So as you just heard, we've actually already mentioned some of the latest developments, right? We need to piece together a lot of these revelations, and you'll find that they tell us three important things. Ah, the first is that the official stability maintenance has, in fact, already been elevated to the level of the National Health Commission. I think it must be that the CCP's National Health Commission has stepped in again, because only when it reaches this national level of stability maintenance ... Only then can they directly use Shanghai's Xinhua Hospital to put pressure on that professor, right? Telling them not to accept this child patient anymore. And also, saying that the treatment results or the treatment situation, etc., must not be disclosed to the public, right? No talking to the media, and everything must be reported to the higher authorities, and so on. It even went so far as to put pressure on Xi'an Central Hospital, as everyone saw, telling them to refund all the medical fees to the parents. Ah, this is n't something that, uh, the local government of Tianshui City would have the capability to do, right? That's exactly why you have n't seen any media outlet come out with, say, an interview with a parent or a detailed in-depth report, and so on. What I want to say is, back then, did n't the official media report that 233 children were found to be affected, right? It involves 233 families, but as you can see, everything is tightly sealed off now—there is n't a single parent who has come out to publicly accept a media interview. There's absolutely no way that the local officials in Tianshui have the ability to pull this off. Ah, that's the first point. The second conclusion is ... As you can see, as I just mentioned, these children not only have extremely high blood lead levels, but their zinc levels are also above the limit. In my opinion, this basically rules out the theory of poisoning from colored paints. He actually ruled it out himself, because the excessive zinc levels really do n't have much to do with colored paints. But relatively speaking, we see that although the excessive zinc levels have been exposed, there are n't that many cases. Strictly speaking, I think this data does n't have a huge impact on the human body, because the human body actually does have a certain need for zinc. Right? It's just a little bit higher, is n't it? Even though it's not much, it wo n't cause any major problems for the body. The real threat to health is still the lead. Because with a level of 580, you could say it already meets the standard for severe lead poisoning. Now, speaking of this, let's briefly explain that exceeding the safe standard for blood lead levels does n't immediately mean you have lead poisoning. Just going over the standard—there's actually a range and as long as you're within a certain range, it's not necessarily a problem. It can only be called elevated blood lead levels, not lead poisoning yet. Poisoning is only diagnosed after reaching a certain higher threshold. And even then, poisoning is classified as mild, moderate, or severe—each level more serious than the last. So, as mentioned earlier, if the test result actually comes back over 580, that already meets the standard for severe lead poisoning. That's really frightening. The third conclusion is that, because the local authorities in Gansu are just too shady, the parents there simply do n't trust them, right? So they'd rather spend a bit more money and travel all the way to Shanghai to seek medical treatment, because the Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai is said to be a pretty authoritative hospital in this field. But surprisingly, the hospital was ordered by higher-ups not to accept them. Just think about what kind of concept this is—imagine a hospital being forcibly ordered not to accept a certain type of patient seeking medical treatment. It's basically like openly telling all the parents that you have to stay local and cooperate with the local government's requirements. No matter how good the treatment conditions are at hospitals elsewhere, they wo n't be available to you, and you wo n't be accepted, right? In other words, whether your child can be cured or not ultimately depends on your own fate. If things go well, great; if not, you just have to accept it. To put it bluntly, that's what it means. And that's the message that's being sent out. Does n't this sound a bit familiar to everyone? These words, right? Remember Luo Shuaiyu from Xiangya Hospital? Previously, there was an exposé about Xiangya Hospital being involved in things like illegal organ harvesting and there was a recording, right? In Luo Shuaiyu's recording, there was this revelation—basically, a doctor, a so-called devil doctor, who would recklessly remove patients' organs on the operating table. At the time, Luo Shuaiyu even asked him,'If you remove a healthy organ, what are you going to do? How is that person supposed to survive? And the doctor just replied,'If it's cut out, it's cut out. Whether he survives or not depends on his own fate. Now, it's like this—the hospitals in Shanghai are refusing to accept these children from Gansu with student visas for treatment. It's basically the same logic, pretty much the same thing: whether the child can survive or not, well, that 's up to their fate. They're saying it's not their concern. So, what other issue did everyone on site bring up? Without a doubt, as I said, the Chinese Communist Party has already entered a nationwide stability-maintenance mode. Judging from the intensity of this stability-maintenance effort, I'm personally not very optimistic about the so-called provincial investigation team's future conclusions. Because, as everyone can see, right? Especially now, the public is strongly questioning things. They're saying that the real cause of this lead poisoning is very likely the lead-zinc mine owned by the Baiyin Group. Ah, so it's a problem with that mine—it may have seriously polluted the groundwater. But as for the Tianshui government, their investigation team in Tianshui City has already publicly concluded that it was caused by that pigment, right? So if this provincial investigation team later overturns this conclusion—if they overturn the conclusion that the poisoning was caused by the pigment—not only could it trigger widespread panic among the local people, because everyone living there, whether adults or minors might become extremely anxious, and maybe everyone would immediately rush to Xi'an to get their blood lead levels tested. Because everyone knows that getting tested locally ca n't be trusted—it's fake. This could lead to very serious social consequences. Moreover, it might involve the local government committing a criminal act by framing the staff in the kindergarten kitchen. For example, if it was actually the mine, right? If the underground water pollution was the real cause, but now you're fabricating false evidence. Claiming things like what kind of paint was used and so on—this is actually a criminal offense. So, for a government to set up ordinary citizens like this, the cost of such actions—if it were to be exposed—could cause an uproar in the entire international community, right? That ’ s probably not a price the CCP, which prides itself on being forever great, glorious, and correct, would be willing to pay. Of course, I personally hope I ’ m wrong, right? As I just said, I ’ m not very optimistic about the outcome of this investigation. I hope I ’ m wrong, but as for what kind of conclusion this so-called provincial investigation team will ultimately come to, we can only wait and see. Of course, we also very much welcome everyone to share your thoughts on this issue. You can express your opinion—what do you think about this provincial investigation team? What kind of conclusion do you think they ’ ll reach? Do you think they ’ ll overturn the previous conclusion made by the Tianshui city investigation team? Feel free to leave us a comment and share your thoughts . Actually, the issue of lead poisoning in Tianshui has quite a long history. Let me share another piece of information with you: as far back as 15 years ago, in 2010, there was already an expert from the Tianshui Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a person named Ma Maozhong. He wrote a paper that was published in the journal 'Endemic Diseases Bulletin,' and the title was' A Study on the Effects of Blood Lead Levels on Children's Behavior in Rural Lead-Polluted Areas of Tianshui City. Did you all see that? This paper is actually quite astonishing—it was published 15 years ago. At that time, they sampled 206 people, all of whom were minors, and found that the average blood lead level for boys was 314 ± 81.53, while for girls it was a bit lower, at 284 ± 70.85. Those are roughly the numbers. These numbers are way above the normal standards. And this was already a very common finding in publicly available research 15 years ago. The blood lead levels are so high—lead poisoning is clearly evident. So, blood lead poisoning was hardly a secret in that area even back then. They had known about it for a long time, right? The medical departments, even the government agencies. But, at least 15 years ago, scholars were still allowed to collect samples, conduct research, write papers, and even publish them openly in journals. But what ’ s the situation now? Now, local patients are outright forbidden from getting their blood lead levels tested. Hospitals are directly told: don ’ t do any blood lead tests, period. That ’ s the situation now. If you realize—if you find out your blood lead level is high and want to go elsewhere for treatment, there ’ s no way. Other places aren ’ t allowed to accept you. That ’ s the reality now. Think about it—fifteen years. Consider the changes behind all this, what does it mean ? You might want to reflect on it yourself. This regime has already— Just how evil and twisted has it become? Alright, with the last bit of time, let ’ s talk about this: as mentioned earlier, Trump ’ s second round of the tariff world war. Starting from July 7th, Trump has actually issued tariff notices in four batches to 24 trade partners. The latest notifications today mainly target two parties: Mexico and the European Union. The tariff rate this time is set at 30 %. If you look at this round, right, among the 24 countries and regions, the lowest tariff rate is 20 %, while the highest reaches 50 % for Brazil. Of course, the four most closely watched targets are worth mentioning. The first is Brazil, because it has the highest tariff rate. But what's especially odd is that if you look it up, you'll find that in trade with the US, Brazil actually runs a deficit. The US, on the other hand, actually has a trade surplus with Brazil. Although the amount is n't large—just a few billion dollars—it still makes Brazil one of the very few US trade partners where the US runs a surplus. So, this means that Trump's reason for imposing tariffs on Brazil is n't really about trade imbalance. Ah, instead, it's actually for two other reasons. One is that Brazil has always been scheming, you know, with the BRICS countries, right? They're all joining forces, trying to replace the US dollar. So, Trump is especially furious about this, right? He even issued a special warning, saying that if any of you BRICS countries dare to talk about excluding the US dollar, I'll slap a 10 % tariff on you. And the second reason is the political witch hunt against Brazil's former president, Bolsonaro. This former president is nicknamed the'Brazilian Trump . So, now that the leftist president Lula has come to power, it's possible that he's carrying out political retaliation against him. That's why Trump feels a special sense of empathy, because he himself has also been the target of this kind of political witch hunt many times. So we can see that, in fact, tariffs are basically a universal tool for Trump to exert pressure. Collecting a bit of tax money is actually a minor thing the real pressure for Brazil is that, if they really do what they say—like threatening,' I can stop doing business with the US,' right? —if they truly cut off trade with the US, that would actually mean leaving the US dollar system. And leaving the US dollar system—just think about what that means—it means economically cutting yourself off from the international community. You would end up completely shutting yourself off, trying to be self-sufficient and playing that game. The second target, of course, is the EU, which is also quite sensitive, because the EU has actually kind of given in these days, right? They've proactively extended an olive branch. That is, the European Commission has announced it will abandon its plan to tax digital companies—basically, the digital services tax. They only introduced this tax two months ago, and now they've given it up themselves. This just shows that President Trump, along with American tech giants like Apple, Meta, or X, have really made their mark. They've scored a major victory, and now with Trump coming out and announcing a 30 % tariff on the EU, it really feels like he's pressing his advantage, not letting up at all. But regardless, I actually feel pretty optimistic about the possibility of the US and Europe reaching an agreement. In other words, the EU knows, under pressure, that there are some cards it just ca n't play, right? The third thing worth paying attention to is Japan. Because as you can see, Trump is imposing a reciprocal tariff of up to 25 % on Japan, since that's the rate Japan imposes as well. The main reason is that Trump harshly criticized Japan for refusing to import American rice and cars. Ah, so this highlights that the Japanese government might be rather firm and unyielding in certain negotiation strategies. Of course, behind this, there ’ s actually a political reason—in my view, it ’ s not really an economic one. That ’ s because Japan ’ s House of Councillors is set for re-election on July 20th. So, what about the current ruling Liberal Democratic Party? Their party ’ s approval rating is quite sluggish, and they ’ re all very worried right now—they might not even be able to secure a majority of seats. What they ’ re facing is a crisis where the administration could change hands, and it ’ s even possible that the Prime Minister himself might be replaced. So, under this kind of immense pressure, Japan ’ s Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, actually swore during a campaign rally, bluntly saying,'We ’ re being looked down upon now. Are we really just going to swallow our pride and take it like this? Everyone says,' I ’ m America,' referring to Trump. Are we really just going to swallow our pride and take it like this? Everyone says,' I ’ m America,' referring to Trump. Now, Shigeru Ishiba is unwilling to compromise, and I think the main reason for that is political. The farmers ’ groups are a very important voting base for the Liberal Democratic Party. If they import rice, it would undoubtedly hurt the farmers, right? So, any significant opening up of this sector would likely trigger protests from the farmers, and he could lose a lot of votes because of it. In other words, the Japanese government would rather endure rising domestic prices than fully open up rice imports, in order to avoid triggering a political crisis. Similarly, the same goes for the automobile industry. Everyone knows that the automobile industry is a pillar industry in Japan. Of course, they ’ re not willing to just open up the market and risk impacting local jobs and their own industrial chain, right? Because in Japan, the automobile industry is a major source of employment and a key part of the industrial chain. If you really let American cars in, no matter how you look at it, even though it ’ s the U.S.—actually, to be honest, I think the impact of American cars on the Japanese market is quite limited. Yeah, because honestly, a lot of Japanese people really don ’ t like driving American cars, right? But as a leader, you know, in order to protect his own base, out of concern for these kinds of risks, he ’ s still not very willing to compromise easily. But if we look at it from Trump ’ s perspective, he ’ s looking at the big picture. He feels that the U.S. is already providing security guarantees to Japan, and that ’ s already a huge contribution, right? So you can ’ t have Japan still taking advantage of the U.S. economically—you charge us 25 %, but we only charge you 5 %, right? So, from this perspective, I think it ’ s actually quite reasonable for Japan to give the U.S. some appropriate economic returns. After all, nowadays you could say that national security outweighs economic development—we ’ re already in that era. In the past, during the age of globalization, economic development came first, but now national security is actually more important. So the security guarantees the U.S. provides to Japan are, you could say, a very significant bargaining chip Of course, the fourth targets they mentioned are Canada and Mexico. These two, well, they're both neighbors of the United States, and their economies are heavily dependent on the U.S.—there's no way around it. But at the same time, they both have this thing in common: they want to show that they can totally get by without relying on the U.S., so they tend to act pretty tough. But in reality, they just ca n't shake off that dependence. So, in my view, even though these two countries might talk tough, in fact, they probably— If that 30 % tariff really gets slapped on them— they actually wo n't be able to handle it. Overall, though, I'm pretty optimistic about Trump being able to handle this round with these countries. The tariff rate he's proposing now is really just him throwing out a sky-high asking price—it's classic Trump. He always leaves room for the other side to bargain him down. And now, as you can see, the UK and Vietnam have already officially reached agreements. Although there is n't a formal agreement with the CCP yet, at least there's a sort of ceasefire as an example. As long as you're willing to compromise, as long as you're willing to make concessions, then a lot of things are actually pretty negotiable for Trump, right ? You can see that the ceasefire terms reached with the CCP are n't really all that harsh from their perspective either. So, I think that this time, the difficulty of reaching an agreement by August 1st after this round of negotiations should actually be a bit easier compared to back in April. But that's just my personal opinion, for your reference. Alright, next we'll respond to a question from everyone. There's a friend who I think explained things quite thoroughly. He left us a message saying: The appointment of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and Labor, as well as the division of responsibilities within the Special Service Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, do n't need to be announced in such detail by the Ministry of Personnel. It only needs to be announced at the internal executive meeting of the Ministry of Public Security. I think this friend might be someone from within the system, because you can tell from the way he talks—he seems to really understand how these things work. I think his explanation is quite thorough, and that's indeed how it is. So yesterday, when we were discussing with everyone about Yang Weilin, right? And then, as it turns out, the Vice Minister of Public Security basically took over, sort of incidentally, the control of the Special Service Bureau. For Wang Xiaohong, this is actually a really big deal—it's basically sidelining Wang Xiaohong. And also, Wang Xiaohong ’ s former right-hand man, Hu Chenbin, her chief steward, has already been transferred away. So you can see, as I ’ ve been saying to everyone, after the gun barrels are cleaned up, it ’ s the turn of the knife handles. You see, it ’ s happening step by step. Now, about the Special Service Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security—everyone ’ s been asking, what ’ s the relationship between the Special Service Bureau and the Central Security Bureau? Let me briefly explain. The Central Security Bureau mainly handles the security and protection of the top leadership, specifically the Politburo Standing Committee members—that is, the highest level of leaders. The Special Service Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, on the other hand, is mainly responsible for what ’ s called the'four deputies and two highs,' which basically means everyone at the vice-national level and below. So, the'four deputies' mainly refer to, for example— Vice Premiers—that is, the deputy positions in the four major bodies: the Party, the government, the National People's Congress, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, right? The deputy leaders of these four main institutions. But it also includes some other vice-national-level officials, including the'two highs,' which refers to the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and actually, it covers quite a few others as well. And then, going further down, there are other vice-national-level officials, like Central Committee members, State Councilors, and so on—these kinds of officials are all under the responsibility of the Special Service Bureau. Actually, the scope of their security work is even broader. Of course, everyone knows that in the Xi Jinping era, so-called security, or'protection,' is really just surveillance. Right? So, Xi Jinping uses this approach to basically keep even retired elders under surveillance. Now, the Special Service Bureau has officially announced it—in my view, this is equivalent to officially handing it over to Yang Weilin. Ah, it ’ s already been taken from Wang Xiaohong—this is the official announcement. As for the Central Security Bureau, it ’ s supposed to be under the control of the director of the General Office. If the leak is true and Chen Jilin is going to replace Cai Qiye as the director of the General Office , then it means that control over the Central Security Bureau will also shift. That ’ s the idea, so in other words , Let ’ s not jump to any definite conclusions for now. I know there ’ s a lot of debate about whether Xi Jinping actually has power or not, right? People have very different opinions. For now, let ’ s set that issue aside and not discuss it. What we ’ re seeing now are already a lot of facts. I mean, what ’ s on the surface is what ’ s been officially announced, and what ’ s beneath the surface comes from relatively reliable sources that have leaked information. You can see that this transfer of power is already happening, right? For example, according to official announcements, let ’ s talk about military power. Miao Hua was removed, and Zhang Shengmin is set to take his place. Zhang Shengmin is Zhang Youxia ’ s man, so now the personnel power in the military is in Zhang Youxia ’ s hands. Isn ’ t that a transfer of power? Right? And then, right after that, there was a swap between Organization Minister Shi Taifeng and Li Ganjie. That is to say, the personnel power within the Party ’ s governmental system has also significantly shifted, and you will undoubtedly notice that the fundamental direction of this particular shift is always precisely the same—it ’ s all consistently moving away from Xi Jinping ’ s faction and his closest, most trusted allies It ’ s being transferred into the hands of those outside Xi Jinping ’ s faction, all in the same direction. What does that tell us? If you think about it, the answer behind all this is actually pretty obvious, right? Of course, since the end of July is coming up soon. It's coming up very soon. Uh, now the Beidaihe meeting is about to start, right? So, of course, after the Beidaihe meeting, we might as well look at what could happen next, including after the military parade on September 3rd. What will happen then? The real key might still be the Fourth Plenary Session right? That ’ s something we should pay close attention to. Alright, thank you all for your feedback and for our discussion.