The US Seized An Oil Shipment Meant for China. And Now They're FURIOUS

Tragedy strikes Taiwan, but at least it gets some other very good news. Is China going to back Venezuela in a war against the US? Vietnam is gearing up to fight China. That and more on this week's China news headlines. Welcome to China Uncensored. I'm Chris Chapel. This episode is sponsored by Surf Shark. Whenever you go online, you really should be using a VPN like Surf Shark to cover your tracks and protect your identity. I'll tell you more in a bit. Uh, let's start the show off right by talking about senseless violence. Last week, a knife attacker killed three people and injured 11 after smokebombing the Taipei Metro. In addition to smoke bombs, the attacker also detonated Molotov cocktails before stabbing several people. According to authorities, the man responsible was 27-year-old Chong W, a former volunteer in Taiwan's Air Force who later failed to show up for mandatory reserve military training. A 57year-old man surnamed Yu reportedly tried to stop Chong, but he ended up being one of the three stabbed to death. So, why did Chong do all this? Well, no one knows and it might be pretty difficult to find out since Jon died from injuries after falling from a multi-story building during the police chase. While the investigation continues, Taiwanese authorities are increasing security and transportation hubs across the country. And if that wasn't enough, earlier this week, southeastern Taiwan was shaken by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake. Luckily, although there were reports of buildings shaking in Taipei, it doesn't seem there is any damage to people or infrastructure. Because despite what the CCP might say, these buildings aren't made in China. But there is some good news for Taiwan. The US has announced a massive package of arm sales to the island worth more than $10 billion. Yep, I said sales because what better way to fight off communists than with capitalism. Cutching. This package includes 82 high Mars systems, 420 attackums, and 60 self-propelled howitzers along with drones, various spare parts, and several kinds of missiles. And the best part is, at least for Trump, Taiwan said thank you. And still more good news for Taiwan. Honduras is joining other Latin American countries that are rethinking their ties with China and considering resuming diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Back in March of 2023, the Honduran president ended the country's 82-year relationship with Taiwan and switched to recognizing the People's Republic of China. But now, in the run-up to the November 30th election, two major presidential candidates vowed to go back to recognizing Taiwan. The Liberal Party candidate said, "For Honduras, there has been absolutely no benefit from the relationship with China." while his Trump endorsed opponent from the Honduran National Party, who was declared the winner of the election on Christmas Eve, said, "We are a hundred times better off with Taiwan." Which is pretty accurate given that the CCP lies, engages in debt trap diplomacy, and is not so good at keeping promises like say, "Oh, I don't know, its promise to replace Taiwanese imports of Honduran shrimp back in 2023, which never happened." Good move, Honduras. Meanwhile, Vietnam has almost completed its militarized South China Sea outposts. In fact, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, Vietnam may soon match or even surpass the CCP's level of artificial island building. This is the most artificial construction I've seen done on a series of bodies outside of Hollywood. Most of the construction has been in the Spratley Islands with the country turning Allison Reef, East Reef, Collins Reef, Petley's Reef, and Landsdown Reef into fortified mini bases housing munition storage containers. It's reefer madness out there. Other islands also have ports, harbors, and even a runway. The idea, of course, is to counter China in case the CCP decides that Vietnam is a historical part of China, which, let's face it, could easily happen. Vietnam is still massively outgunned by China. But last time China fought a war with them, CCP got creamed. I've never hoped history repeats as much as I do right now. And an update on the trade war, the Europe China trade war. The European Union is condemning Chinese dairy duties that recently came into effect as unjustified. Harsh words, EU. In August 2024, China announced it was launching an anti-subsidity probe after getting a request from the Dairy Association of China. The probe will finish in February, after which the CCP could modify its duties. But for now, these duty deposits, and yes, I also giggled the first time I heard duty deposits, are up to almost 43% and are impacting products from blue cheese to Kurds and milk. And if you're eating your Kurds and whey, you don't want this big old spider to sit down beside you. The European Trade Commission spokesman said it has taken action at the WTO, but since this is the European Union we're talking about here, I'm sure it'll just end with more rounds of useless talks and China milking them for all their worth. Looks like Venezuela is blasting off again. As the Trump administration continues to press forward with military action against the Maduro regime, China is coming to their defense. Not in any meaningful way, just by talking. China is backing Venezuela's call for a UN Security Council meeting amid tensions with the US with Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jian Kun saying that the CCP thinks the international community is understanding and supportive of Venezuela's position. So, does this mean that China is stepping forward to help its ally in the Americas? Well, no, not really. What it does mean is that China is annoyed because the United States seized a ship carrying Chinese oil. According to the New York Times, last week the US Coast Guard stopped and boarded a tanker called the Centuries with people in the Venezuela oil industry saying the cargo belongs to an established China-based oil trader that brings Caracus' crude to Chinese refineries. And it turns out that the tanker, which sailed under Panama's flag, wasn't even on a list of tankers sanctioned by the US. The CCP, of course, is feeling a bit violated, and so it's off to the UN to complain for the hundth time about unilateral bullying, which always makes me laugh. Good old predictable CCP. Meanwhile, the US has dropped plans to deport a Chinese man who helped expose the Weaguer genocide. Guangh secretly filmed Weaguer concentration camps back in 2020 and illegally entered the US with the footage via boat. Thank goodness he didn't come this year. Votes coming to the US don't fare that well anymore. He then uploaded the footage on YouTube. I wonder if YouTube has been shadowbanning him like they do us. Hung sought asylum in Albany, New York, but was detained in August by ICE and slated to be deported to Uganda. Since he didn't even come from there, I assume his reaction was Uganda be kidding me. And to make matters worse, he was doxed and his family in China got summoned by the state security authorities. Luckily, Hung garnered a lot of public support, including from government officials and rights groups. And after a Democratic Illinois representative wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam, it's expected that his asylum case will smoothly proceed as normal. That might annoy the CCP, but you know what won't? The US pushing additional tariffs on Chinese semiconductors forward to June of 2027, leaving the initial rate 0%. This appears to be a sign that Trump is trying to cool down the trade war with China. The Trump administration said in a Federal Register filing that the rates for the new tariffs will be announced just a month before they go into effect because sometimes procrastination can also be punishment. On top of that, it looks like Nvidia is aiming to begin H200 chips shipments to China by midFebruary. Although the anonymous sources who said this also said that nothing is official until this move gets government approval. And there are some major concerns in Washington about this entire ordeal. And although China is holding discussions on these shipments, it still hasn't formalized any purchases just yet. But in any case, this is one Christmas gift to China that is pretty worrying. Someone should really tell Santa to recalibrate his nice list. The FCC is banning new foreignade drones, including ones from China, which the CCP says is discriminatory. Yes, because banning all foreignade drones is somehow specifically aimed at China. I mean, actually, it kind of is, but it's still kind of narcissistic for the CCP to think everything is about them. A year ago, Congress passed a defense bill warning about the national security risks of Chinese-made drones in the country, which have become widely used for mapping, film making, and even law enforcement. And with the Olympics, World Cup, and the 250th anniversary of the US coming up, it makes total sense why the FCC made this ruling. Well, total sense they made the ruling, not total sense why it took so long. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the Trump administration should correct its wrong and discriminatory practices and ensure fair environments for Chinese companies. Yeah, stop being a racist and let China spy on America. Why don't you, you bigot? But the president and chief executive of the Association for Unscrewed Vehicle Systems International welcomed the mood. He says the US needs to reduce its reliance on China and that recent history underscores why the United States must increase domestic drone production and secure its supply chains, which we could say of so many things having to do with China. And finally, a long awaited sequel to the legendarily offensive SNES game Hong Kong 97 has been delisted from Steam. The original bootleg game released in 1995 in Japan. It told the story of a relative of Bruce Lee named Chen who was hired by the Hong Kong government to fend off hordes of mainland Chinese quote unquote ugly reds and defeat the ultimate CCP weapon, a resurrected Dung Xiaoing. It was notoriously bad and made frequent use of unlicensed images, including potentially a real dead body. But it gained a cult following. And yet its sequel, Hong Kong 2097, no longer has a Steam page. Steam claims this is because of its use of unlicensed third-party content. Yet, all is not lost, as one of the games co-developers said, "It's unfortunate, but I knew there was a chance this would happen. This game is not cancelled and said it would be up on other gaming sites." And you can bet I'll be playing it on my other channel, Gamers Unbeaten, when it comes out. And did you know that every time you go online, everything you do is potentially compromised? That's why the people at Surf Shark created a VPN that keeps your internet activity private and secure. 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And it also goes the extra mile with add-ons that keep you and your whole family safe from all the malicious things that come through the internet. Plus, Surf Shark has servers you can connect to in more than a 100 countries, more than any other VPN. So stay safe and get Surf Shark. Go to surfark.com/unensored and use the code uncensored to get up to four months extra. The link is in the description below. And click on this video here to see the latest episode of my other show, Deep Thoughts While Gaming, about Star Fox 64 and the bombing of Hiroshima Nagasaki. Once again, I'm Chris Chapel. See you next time.