The Chinese Military Turns Its Gun on Xi Jinping

Xi Jinping has lost control. Russia's financial relationship with the CCP takes a nose dive. And Tik Tok is helping Manny win New York City. That and more on this week's China news headlines. Welcome to China Uncensored. I'm Chris Chapel. As the New York mayoral race heats up in the leadup to November, everyone is choosing their candidate, including Tick Tock. It's exactly who you'd think. unabashed Democratic socialist Zoran Mandani. That's right. According to a report, Tik Tok is meddling in the New York City mayoral race by boosting Mamani content and suppressing content related to his opponent. Also, Democrat and unrepentant grandma killer Andrew Cuomo. Everyone always seems to forget about Republican Curtis Leewa. He's running too, you know. Technically, the report comes from an Israelbased tech insider. Ah, I know how some people are going to respond to that. He used data from a leaked Tik Tok software engineer onboarding document to find evidence of which videos were being promoted behind the scenes by the algorithm, namely promani videos. But this goes way beyond just the New York City mayoral race. Because although the Trump administration has negotiated the sale of Tik Tok to a group of American companies, Tik Tok's Chinese parent company, Bike Dance, is only going to be licensing a version of the algorithm to the new owners, not selling it. So, there's every possibility that the algorithm might still serve the interests of the Chinese Communist Party and impact the choices of American voters. The Los Angeles police have announced the arrest of a Chinese national named Suja Wong. And this isn't your typical espionage case. He was accused of drugging and raping multiple women between 2021 and 2024. I never thought I'd say this, but I wish he was just a spy. Wong was a graduate student at the University of Southern California on a student visa and he was also under investigation in Germany for similar crimes committed while visiting the country. In fact, it was German police who first tipped off the LAPD. I wonder if Sud is grateful he was caught by American police rather than German. The LAPD believes there are other victims and are asking them to come forward with information. And speaking of Chinese criminals, a nationwide human trafficking bust has been targeting Chinese organized crime networks by focusing on the Chinese massage parlor industry, which is a hub for human trafficking and prostitution. Called Operation Coast to Coast, not that one. The bust involved multiple organizations and investigating teams from Texas, California, Missouri, New York, and North Carolina. I'm glad to see these red and blue states actually agree on something other than gerrymandering. According to Fox News, nationwide, more than 30 people were arrested or detained, and more than 60 victims were rescued and offered services. The effort was coordinated by the Human Trafficking Center, which is actually an antihuman trafficking organization, despite sounding like a place you go to watch orientation videos on your first day of being a kidnapper. The founder, Dan Nash, said that it is all Chinese organized crime and all of this is going right back to China. All the money is going back to China. The victims are coming over here from China. Most of these states are like, "How are we allowing Chinese organized crime to do all this trafficking in America? Let's stop it." And we are coming together to stop it. Most impressively of all, they got California and Texas to work together. Speaking of Texas, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating the popular network and smart home device manufacturer TP Link Systems, which swears crosss its heart and hope to die that it is now absolutely separate from its former parent company, China's TP Link Technologies. So why would a Texas AG be investigating a company with absolutely zero ties to China, Pinky Swear? Well, obviously for allegedly allowing Beijing to access US consumer data. See, the thing is Paxton is concerned that TPLink might have lied to consumers about just how independent it is from China. Given the sheer amount of data the company gets through its devices, that could be pretty bad. Paxton said, "I will not allow any company to sell us out to our greatest geopolitical enemy." Here, here. If TPLink is violating Texas law and jeopardizing Americans, my office will do everything in our power to hold them accountable. Paxton threatened legal action against a bunch of companies over this back in May. So, this really isn't anything new, but it's good to see that no one important forgot about it. And as always, don't mess with Texas. Meanwhile, in news related to US China trade tensions and talks, President Trump is threatening China with a cooking oil embargo over its snub of American soybean farmers. Basically, the CCP is saying, "We're not going to buy your soybeans." And Trump is saying, "Well, then you don't get to buy our cooking oil either." I'm not sure who the real loser here is. Although, given the notoriety of Chinese cooking oil, probably the Chinese. China is now importing soybeans from South America instead of the US. This is also newsworthy though because how often do you hear about Trump sticking up for soy boys? And after the break, has Xi Jinping lost control of the Chinese military? Welcome back. China's September exports to Russia show the steepest decline in 7 months. This shouldn't be all that surprising since the downward trend has been going on for some time now. Maybe we're beginning to see the limits of that no limits partnership they have. The West has finally been going after China for their support of the Russian war machine. President Trump imposed sanctions on two major Russian oil companies, forcing China's state oil majors to suspend their purchases of Russian oil. However, this does not mean they've been cut off. After a series of several delays, Russia's multi-billion dollar Power of Siberia 2 pipeline deal with China is finally moving forward with a legally binding memorandum signed last month. The goal was to replace the Western energy market for a Chinese one since, you know, Europe is finally realizing it might not make the most sense to depend on Russia for their energy needs for some reason. But it turns out this was more poorly executed than the war itself. Russia and China haven't been able to agree on financing, gas prices, or a timeline for deliveries, leaving a final deal out of reach. So, beyond the 5 years to actually build this thing to completion, and another five before it's totally serviceable, there are still a lot of obstacles to cross before China gets its liquid gold or Russia gets its sweet UN. Speaking of that neighborhood, thanks to Chinese pressure, Azerbaijan prevented five Taiwanese judges from attending the International Association of Judges meeting between October 11th and 17th. Gee, I wonder why Taiwan and justice being thought of in the same sentence would make China nervous. Hm. A report in the Liberty Times said that only the delegation's head flew to Baku, but even he was refused entry and deported immediately, which had to be insulting because as a judge, he knew that's not how this is supposed to work. Taiwan condemned the incident and asked how it can be expected to publicly defend human rights and justice if it can't even attend a meeting like this. Human rights over Zoom just doesn't have the same impact. However, the CCP was kind enough to allow the Czech delegation to read the Taiwan judges statements at the conference in Azerbaijan, where China totally has authority to allow or disallow things. Moving forward, Taiwan is urging the International Association of Judges to not allow this thing to happen again because it's going to. Like Russia, so many countries are just waiting for that sweet, sweet money. An update to a story from earlier this week. A top meeting of communist officials, the fourth plenum has wrapped. There were rumors ahead of it that Xi Jinping would be forced to step down. Rumors I thought were bunkked since this is about the third time this year. We've heard people saying she was going to be purged. So, let's read the concluding statement from the fourth plenum. All of us in the party must acquire a deep understanding of the decisive significance of establishing comrade Xi Jinping's core position on the party central committee and in the party as a whole and of establishing the guiding role of Xi Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era. Yeah, doesn't sound like she has stepped down. But the goalposts have been moved yet again. Sure, Xi Jinping may look like he's in charge, but he really isn't. Top Chinese General Jang Yoshia, backed by other party elders, are only keeping Shei in place as a figurehead. Why would they do that? What's the source? Who knows? But one thing is certain, she has lost control of the Chinese military. Ignore that massive military parade he led in September and the official mouthpiece of the Chinese military just saying unite even more closely around party central with comrade Xi Jinping at the core and always remain loyal to the core, embrace the core, safeguard the core and defend the core. No, Xi Jinping has definitely lost control of the military. But as wacky as the rumor mill is, it does bring up a good point. Sooner or later, she won't be in charge. Granted, she and Putin were caught talking about living to be 150 years old by harvesting organs. But failing that, Xi Jinping is old. Will he name a successor? Will he just one day die and then there'll be chaos as everyone tries to grab power? Let me know in the comments below if you'd like me to make an episode about that. But finally, some sad news. Friend of the show, freedom fighter, and former premier of the Solomon Islands biggest province, Daniel Sedani has passed away. He was instrumental in trying to turn the tide of Chinese influence in the Solomon Islands, a critical strategic point in a coming war with China. For daring to stand up to the CCP, they literally tried to kill him by denying him life-saving medical services, until Taiwan stepped in. In 2023, you helped raise funds to bring him to Washington, DC so he could personally warn our government about the dangerous expansion of the CCP in the Pacific. He was a wonderful, lovely man. And I know you're all wondering how he died. I'll use the words of friend to the show, Cleopascal, to say it. The exact cause is irrelevant and up to the family to disclose. But functionally, what murdered him was a combination of constant hounding affecting his health and the absolute failure of partners like Australia, who will give Solomon's money for an aquatic center, but not for a proper health center. I know this is a less than fun way to end the episode, but let's honor his memory by carrying on the fight against the Chinese Communist Party. Once again, I'm Chris Chapel. See you next time.