Something Really WEIRD is Happening in China’s Military

After dismal failures of Chinese military equipment in Iran and Venezuela, a sweeping purge hits China's military-industrial complex. Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell. Real quick, it seems YouTube has found a new way to screw China Uncensored. I'm constantly hearing from you that you don't get notifications about new episodes, even if you're subscribed and have notifications turned on. Well, now I might know why. A viewer named Anthony sent me this. It says notifications are turned off for content that is made for kids. Made for kids. Do you think China Uncensored is made for kids? In fact, in YouTube's backend, not only have I told YouTube as a whole the channel is not made for kids, in every single episode, I select not made for kids. Is this happening to you? Please let me know, because this is strange. But really, it isn't. This is just the latest in a huge string of weirdness YouTube has thrown our way, including YouTube's autocomplete suggesting China Uncle Goose instead of China Uncensored. This is why I need your help. To secure the future of China Uncensored, I need 3,000 subscribers to my website, ChinaUncensored.tv. I'm about two-thirds of the way there, but I need you. Yes, you. Don't assume someone else will do it. I know times are tough all around, but if you can, please consider buying a subscription to ChinaUncensored.tv. Otherwise, with the way things are going, I'm not sure China Uncensored will survive the year. Big things are happening in the world right now, and I think we can accomplish a lot together. Thank you for listening to my pitch. I wish I didn't have to do this, but now on with the show. So there is something really weird going on with China's military. And I'm not talking about the recent purges of Chinese generals, including basically all of China's high command. Or how the CCP is disassembling the Avengers like they're preparing for the coming of Thanos. I mean, that's pretty weird. But I'm talking about a sweeping purge in China's defense industry. The scientists and engineers responsible for making the weapons and gear for China's People's Liberation Army. According to this Pentagon report from the end of last year, at least 26 top and former managers with state-owned arms suppliers have been placed under investigation or removed from their positions. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. The crackdown has not been limited to individuals. Over the past three years, senior executives across all 10 of China's core state-owned defense conglomerates have been caught up in investigations or purges. This is China's entire military-industrial complex. Aerospace, aviation, weapons, shipbuilding, even nuclear. Chinese social media is ablaze with speculation. And censors are working overtime to erase the conversation. Since apparently censors are the only ones in China with job security. But you know what this means. It's time for another episode of the people's favorite communist soap opera, General Hostility. Previously on General Hostility The Chinese Communist Party is at war. The entire communist state apparatus has geared itself to overthrowing the United States as the sole global power. And Chairman Xi Jinping is at the helm. He has become the scion of decades of communist ambition and believes he's the harbinger of a new world order. But corruption, disloyalty, and backstabbing have driven Xi into a cycle of never-ending purges. As he seeks to tighten his grip on a fighting force he fears his rivals could one day use against him. Is there a better show on YouTube? So yes, since coming to power, Xi Jinping has been obsessed with turning the Party's military into what he calls a world-class fighting force. There's been a complete restructuring of the PLA, and a major effort to develop cutting-edge weaponry. You know, for China's enduring commitment to peaceful development. How do you not understand that the Guam Killer Missile is for peace? Specifically blowing the US territory into pieces. The problem is, it sure seems lately that a lot of that equipment doesn't work. Iran relied on Chinese radar and missile defense. So did Venezuela. Didn't really work out for them, did it? Chinese military equipment also failed during a brief conflict between India and Pakistan last year. And since then, there's been a bloodbath in China's defense sector. Mysterious disappearances. And even mysterious deaths. Like last week, it was Yang Wei, the chief designer of the J-20 stealth fighter jet, allegedly a rival to the US F-22. That was a big deal. It was considered a huge breakthrough for the Chinese military, and it was this guy who did it. His star seemed to be rising. After the J-20 entered service in 2017, Yang became an alternate member of the Central Committee, the Communist Party's top decision-making body, as well as the deputy manager of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, or AVIC, in 2018. That's a massive state-owned Chinese aerospace and defense conglomerate. But a shadow has fallen over AVIC. The former chairman Tan Ruisong was expelled from the Communist Party in February last year for taking a huge amount of bribes and extensively abusing his power in the defense industry for personal gain. After an investigation by Xi Jinping's personal anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, if only he had taken a medium amount of bribes and moderately abused his power like a gentleman. And Xi's purges are like Lay's potato chips. You can't have just one, and they're super salty. One purge leads to another, as one guy rats out as many people as he can to save his own skin. Tan's successor Zhou Xiumin found himself purged last month and might be facing criminal charges. As for Yang Wei, well, he and AVIC's general manager Hao Xiaoping were for some reason removed from the company's website at the beginning of last year. And no one has seen him since. No explanation given. But last week, people noticed that suddenly, his name was no longer listed as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. That's China's top academic body for science and technology, an honor that is typically granted for life. Except in cases of serious misconduct or criminal violations. The removal of his academic title a year after his ouster as AVIC's deputy manager and sudden disappearance suggests the end of a prolonged investigation. And possibly his removal from this mortal coil. Titles for life don't apply when you aren't alive. But Yang wasn't the only one removed from the Chinese Academy of Sciences website. Joining him was Liu Guozhi, former top PLA scientist and nuclear test commander. The equally prestigious Chinese Academy of Engineering is also joining the fun. They've erased a bunch of top nuclear weapons, radar, and missile experts from their website this month as well. And this isn't even the craziest story. I'll get to that in a second. But what is going on? What's happening in China's military-industrial complex? It's so refreshing to talk about the troubles in another country's military-industrial complex for a change, isn't it? Were these people leaking Chinese military secrets? Could it be, under the intense pressure and quotas from a communist-led government, they were exaggerating the capabilities of their products to please their superiors? Like a guy trying to pick up a girl saying he works in sales when he's actually an Arby's cashier? Or was basically the entire upper echelon of Chinese defense contractors really just that corrupt and churned out useless junk while skimming money off the top? Whatever the reason, it calls into question China's warfighting capabilities, especially the CCP's ability to successfully launch an invasion of Taiwan. And you have to imagine, if you're in this business, see all your higher-ups getting purged, how are you going to feel about doing your job? Especially when you hear about Fang Daining, another, now former member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Oh, don't worry, they didn't erase him from the website. Something else happened to him. Fang was a key scientist in China's hypersonic weapons program. Those are missiles or vehicles that travel at or above Mach 5. They're fast, obviously, and hard to track or shoot down. China and Russia have them. The US might have one soon. So this is a huge advantage the Chinese military has over the US, and Fang was one of the guys behind it. Fang received numerous honors for his work, including multiple National Natural Science Awards, one of China's highest scientific honors. Because nothing says natural science like hypersonic weapons. This is the closest to a hypersonic weapon in nature. But this kind of made him untouchable. Even after a scandal in 2022, after a video of a young woman repeatedly kissing his face during a live-streamed academic meeting went viral. Believe me, I looked everywhere for that video, and I couldn't find it. I'm sorry. I know you all subbed to this channel for steamy footage of military scientists making out with hotties. But despite that scandal, he got a few slaps on the wrist, some scolding, but he kept on working, making those hypersonic missiles. Until the second time Fang went viral just last week, when this image from the Institute of Advanced Structure Technology, which Fang helped establish, spread like wildfire on Chinese social media. It's an obituary. Now this hasn't been confirmed, but according to that obituary, Fang suffered an unexpected medical episode during a work trip to South Africa. Which, as stories go, is more convoluted and out of the blue than anything in Game of Thrones Season 8. This story is being heavily censored on Chinese social media. Now normally, I wouldn't think much of this story. But right now? After everything, it seems a little sus. It seems like it's a very bad time to be a Chinese weapons scientist. Especially because they're dying too fast. After I finished recording, another hypersonic aviation scientist died at just 56. No word on why. Of course, it's also not a great time to be talking about China on YouTube. So please, become a member of my 50-cent army, click this button or the link below to go to my website ChinaUncensored.tv and subscribe. There's an active chat community where you can talk with me and other fans of the show, plus live streams and episodes I don't upload to YouTube. And you'll be securing the future of China Uncensored. Once again, I'm Chris Chappell. See you next time.