WEBVTT

00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.360
China is crashing towards a childless 
society, while, surprise surprise,  

00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:11.960
the Chinese government is finding ways to make the 
situation even more dystopian than it already is.

00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:14.160
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.  

00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:17.080
Well, it’s time to take a break from 
fighting YouTube censorship...so we can  

00:00:17.080 --> 00:00:20.400
fight Apple’s censorship. I’m not 
kidding. For the last few months,  

00:00:20.400 --> 00:00:23.680
we’ve been building you an 
exclusive China Uncensored app.

00:00:23.680 --> 00:00:27.920
Or at least, we designed it, programmed 
it, and submitted it to Apple for review.  

00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:32.320
They typically approve or reject an 
app within 48 hours, a week at most. 

00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:38.280
We submitted our app for review more than a 
month ago, on January 24. After two weeks,  

00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:42.040
we hadn’t gotten a response, so 
we applied to expedite Apple’s  

00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:47.720
processing. Still no response. Weird. So 
we pulled that version and resubmitted it,  

00:00:47.720 --> 00:00:55.040
hoping it would land with a new reviewer. Still, 
no response. Now it’s been more than a month.  

00:00:55.040 --> 00:01:00.080
No one from Apple has contacted us, and they 
won’t approve or even reject our app—which they  

00:01:00.080 --> 00:01:05.080
probably won’t do, because they have no 
legitimate *cause* to reject our app.

00:01:05.080 --> 00:01:08.640
We tried everything we could. And 
now we’re concerned that Apple is  

00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:12.280
actually *censoring* us. But they 
don’t want to explicitly say so,  

00:01:12.280 --> 00:01:16.720
so they’re ghosting us. An Apple 
a day is keeping *us* away.

00:01:16.720 --> 00:01:21.520
You might ask, But Chris, aren’t 
you being paranoid? Maybe. 

00:01:21.520 --> 00:01:24.760
Except Apple has censored China Uncensored before.

00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:28.080
Back in 2017, we built an app for Apple TV. 

00:01:28.080 --> 00:01:33.360
Apple approved it, but then immediately 
blocked it in mainland China, Hong Kong,  

00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:38.280
and *Taiwan*. Their excuse? 
“Apps must comply with all  

00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:42.440
legal requirements in any location 
where you make them available”. 

00:01:42.440 --> 00:01:46.160
Well, our app *did* comply with 
the laws in Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

00:01:46.160 --> 00:01:50.560
But it took 10,000 of you signing 
this online petition to Apple to  

00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:56.960
pressure them to uncensor us. Which was kind of 
important since Uncensored is our whole thing.

00:01:56.960 --> 00:02:00.960
So here’s what I want you to do now. 
Sign our new petition calling on Apple  

00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:06.272
to NOT CENSOR the China Uncensored 
App! The link is in the description.

00:02:06.272 --> 00:02:06.343
But hey, maybe it’s all just a big 
misunderstanding or just a simple  

00:02:06.343 --> 00:02:06.428
technical delay. That would be great. In 
which case, the petition is just expressing  

00:02:06.428 --> 00:02:06.520
your enthusiastic support for the coming China 
Uncensored iOS app. So thank you for signing.

00:02:06.520 --> 00:02:08.520
Now back to the episode.

00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:11.800
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is great with kids.

00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:14.000
He gives them important lessons,


00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:16.800
He shows them how to use a bucket safely,

00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:20.840
and he even tackles them, just for a bit of fun.

00:02:20.840 --> 00:02:27.840
Plus he sometimes sends them and their 
families off to camps for free. What fun!

00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:30.000
In fact, Xi’s many interactions with  

00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.600
Chinese children have landed him the 
nickname “Grandpa Xi” in Chinese state  

00:02:34.600 --> 00:02:39.960
media. And that’s the only nickname he 
has. The rest definitely aren’t censored.

00:02:39.960 --> 00:02:44.120
And Grandpa Xi and his government 
are so stoked about children that  

00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:47.400
they want Chinese people to have more of them.

00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.400
To achieve that, in recent years, 
the Chinese authorities have rolled  

00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:55.360
out all sorts of incentives to try 
to encourage Chinese baby-making,

00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:58.200
from subsidies and tax breaks for families

00:02:58.200 --> 00:03:02.440
to free fertility treatments 
for couples trying to conceive.

00:03:02.440 --> 00:03:06.440
Some local officials might have gone to the 
task with a bit too much enthusiasm, though, 

00:03:06.440 --> 00:03:09.080
like those calling women to ask 
whether they are pregnant, and,  

00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:11.840
if not, when they’re planning to be. 

00:03:11.840 --> 00:03:14.480
Which shouldn’t be a surprise. 
Given how the CCP treats Taiwan,  

00:03:14.480 --> 00:03:17.000
you can tell they don’t respect boundaries.

00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:19.720
Yet, despite all the various 
attempts, it’s not working.

00:03:19.720 --> 00:03:22.360
China’s birth rate is declining fast,  

00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:27.080
resulting in the national population 
falling three years in a row now,   

00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:30.120
and it has set the stage for 
China to become a severely  

00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:35.560
aging society by 2035. And that’s coming 
from my favorite Chinese state-run media,  

00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:41.560
Global Times, and the CCP health authority, 
so the situation might be even worse!

00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:47.280
Hm, maybe if women get calls by even 
more strangers from the government  

00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:50.980
asking probing questions, that’ll 
put them in a baby-making mood.

00:03:50.980 --> 00:03:55.720
The situation even appears to be accelerating, 
as it came out recently that Chinese marriage  

00:03:55.720 --> 00:04:03.480
rates took a record-setting plunge in 2024 – 
dropping by about a fifth compared to 2023.  

00:04:03.480 --> 00:04:06.640
That was an even deeper drop than during COVID,  

00:04:06.640 --> 00:04:12.280
leaving marriage numbers at their lowest 
since record-keeping began in 1986.

00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:17.200
And with family life in China centered around 
the institution of marriage, no weddings means

00:04:17.200 --> 00:04:18.720
no babies.

00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:21.880
But as Chinese society races towards zero births,  

00:04:21.880 --> 00:04:25.360
it’s not just the prospect of an 
aging society that’s raising alarms.

00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:30.200
In fact, China is heading for a geographic 
and ethnic sea change the likes of which  

00:04:30.200 --> 00:04:36.840
Grandpa Xi and his government have never 
seen. And really really don’t want to see.

00:04:36.840 --> 00:04:39.120
You see, if there’s one thing Xi likes almost as  

00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:43.560
much as growing the Chinese family, 
it’s growing the Chinese countryside.

00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:48.800
Literally. Here he is inspecting a vegetable 
field in Hubei Province in late 2024 and  

00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:55.280
telling farmers how to do stuff. Man, he just 
loves telling people how to spread their seed.

00:04:55.280 --> 00:05:02.000
But they love him for it in the rural areas, 
as this very natural clapping scene suggests.  

00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:05.040
Such trips to the provinces are 
part of Xi’s push to breathe new  

00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:08.880
life into the Chinese countryside 
– a central mission of his.     

00:05:08.880 --> 00:05:10.800
Chinese development in the cities,  

00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:14.520
especially on the country’s east coast, 
has long outpaced the development

00:05:14.520 --> 00:05:20.680
in the countryside, creating one of the 
largest rural-urban income gaps in the world.

00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:27.120
At the same time, large parts of rural China are 
plagued by issues such as soil degradation and

00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:29.120
deindustrialization.

00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:34.440
Do, uh… you have any helpful advice 
for that, Grandpa Xi? Any at all?

00:05:34.440 --> 00:05:39.480
But the declining birthrate is now putting 
Xi’s rural development plans under threat.

00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:43.560
It actually used to be that higher birth 
numbers in rural China compensated for  

00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:47.280
the lower birth rates in the Chinese 
cities, but that is no longer the case.

00:05:47.280 --> 00:05:49.920
Today, births among young people in rural areas  

00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:53.960
are dropping more rapidly than 
among their urban counterparts.

00:05:53.960 --> 00:05:58.840
On top of that, Chinese people continue to 
migrate from the countryside to the cities,  

00:05:58.840 --> 00:06:03.680
contributing to some rural areas 
becoming severely depopulated – a  

00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:08.160
phenomenon referred to in China as 
“hollowed out” towns and villages.   

00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:11.680
And it’s especially bad in some 
of the regions bordering China’s  

00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:17.800
neighboring countries. These towns are 
more hollow than one of the CCP’s promises.

00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:21.160
Not far from the Chinese border 
with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam,

00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:23.760
which is formed by the two 
southern provinces of Yunnan

00:06:23.760 --> 00:06:25.200
and Guangxi,

00:06:25.200 --> 00:06:29.600
there have been accounts of border towns 
and villages turning into ghost towns  

00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:35.280
after locals either died out or abandoned them 
for better living elsewhere. Which is bleak, 

00:06:35.280 --> 00:06:38.200
but at least not as bleak as back 
when places became ghost towns  

00:06:38.200 --> 00:06:43.000
because all the locals starved 
to death. Ain’t communism grand?

00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:46.600
In the north, along the Chinese 
border with Mongolia and Russia,  

00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:49.240
the situation is even more dire.

00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:52.600
There, the population of the 
region of Inner Mongolia fell  

00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:59.640
from almost 25 million people in 
2010 to just 24 million in 2022,

00:06:59.640 --> 00:07:03.000
and the province of Heilongjiang 
went from more than 38 million  

00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:07.720
people in 2010 to less than 32 million in 2020. 

00:07:07.720 --> 00:07:11.600
These declines have raised deep 
concerns among the Chinese authorities,  

00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:14.040
with one government adviser 
saying in November that

00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:18.400
“to bolster national security amid 
a countrywide demographic slide,  

00:07:18.400 --> 00:07:24.160
China should turn its eyes to the declining 
populations of its towns bordering Central Asia”,

00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:27.560
while the ever glorious Global 
Times said last year that Inner  

00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:33.040
Mongolia is the "northern gateway" and 
the "moat" of the capital city Beijing

00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:37.040
that shoulders a major political 
responsibility in safeguarding  

00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:40.040
national security and border stability.

00:07:40.040 --> 00:07:44.120
The Global Times also reported that the 
leader of Inner Mongolia had vowed to  

00:07:44.120 --> 00:07:49.760
implement “comprehensive measures to attract 
more people to settle and live in border areas,  

00:07:49.760 --> 00:07:55.280
and ensure human shields- I mean 
national unity and border security”.

00:07:55.280 --> 00:07:58.720
While the population decline is 
immense, it isn’t exactly clear,  

00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:02.400
though, what sort of immediate national 
security threats could emerge from it.

00:08:02.400 --> 00:08:07.280
After all, it’s rare to see Mongolian hordes 
come riding down from the north these days,

00:08:07.280 --> 00:08:11.600
and that’s what the Great Wall proudly 
rises to protect against, anyway.

00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:16.560
However, the Chinese Communist Party is 
notoriously obsessed with appearing strong,

00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:23.120
and having large stretches of the northern regions 
looking like this doesn’t exactly signal strength.

00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:29.920
Certainly not like Grandpa Xi’s super tough rough 
housing. What a tough guy! And an awesome grandpa!

00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:33.880
China does have some real 
reasons to want to appear strong.

00:08:33.880 --> 00:08:38.679
For example, in the late 19th century, when 
China also looked weak on its northern front,  

00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:44.360
Russia seized the opportunity to 
annex vast areas of Chinese territory.

00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:47.560
Given the state of the China-Russia 
relationship in the 21st century,  

00:08:47.560 --> 00:08:51.240
it seems unlikely that the Russians 
would make a similar move again,

00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:54.800
but then, few thought that Putin would 
be crazy enough to invade Ukraine,  

00:08:54.800 --> 00:08:59.440
so, who knows. His promises are also 
just as hollow as those ghost towns.

00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:02.120
In China’s southern borderlands,  

00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:05.560
though, the potential effects of 
depopulation are much more immediate.

00:09:05.560 --> 00:09:09.360
In the south, the Chinese government has 
long struggled to assert and maintain  

00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:14.840
control, especially along the nearly 
1,400-mile-long border with Myanmar.

00:09:14.840 --> 00:09:20.240
Not only is the cross-border area a patchwork 
of ethnic minorities, the dense jungle and  

00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:26.640
mountainous terrain also make large stretches 
of the region difficult to traverse and monitor.

00:09:26.640 --> 00:09:32.640
This makes the region a hotbed for illicit trade 
and smuggling – including *people* smuggling,  

00:09:32.640 --> 00:09:38.720
in which crime syndicates based in Myanmar have 
lured Chinese people into the war-torn country,  

00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:44.840
where tens of thousands are currently 
enslaved and forced to work as cyber scammers.

00:09:44.840 --> 00:09:47.600
Of course, this explains why people 
might want to leave the area,  

00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:52.760
but when locals begin rapidly disappearing, 
either into Chinese cities or into Myanmar  

00:09:52.760 --> 00:09:57.720
scam centers, there’s not much left in 
the towns to maintain a strong border.

00:09:57.720 --> 00:10:03.200
But not to worry – Xi has an excellent way 
to solve all of China’s rural problems. 

00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:09.720
He has called for Chinese youths to make 
greater contributions to rural revitalization.

00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:14.680
This sentiment was mirrored by an action plan 
announced in 2023 by the local government in  

00:10:14.680 --> 00:10:21.240
Guangdong Province that aims to send 300,000 
college students to the countryside by this  

00:10:21.240 --> 00:10:26.560
year. Which I’m sure is just what they 
were hoping to gain from going to college.

00:10:26.560 --> 00:10:31.360
This plan would have the added bonus of getting 
unemployed youth out of the cities, where they  

00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:38.200
might stir up trouble and unrest and start getting 
crazy ideas about autonomy and freedom of speech.

00:10:38.200 --> 00:10:43.960
The whole thing is also a fun throwback to the 
Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, when  

00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:50.400
millions of Chinese young people were sent to 
the countryside to educate and be educated. Oh,  

00:10:50.400 --> 00:10:53.560
and a whole bunch of people 
were killed. You know… fun!

00:10:53.560 --> 00:10:59.240
Xi himself has often spoken fondly about the time 
he himself spent in a rural village back then.

00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:01.800
Those were indeed splendid days,  

00:11:01.800 --> 00:11:07.360
with Chinese youths gathering to exercise 
with hammers on Chinese cultural treasures

00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:13.840
and making oversized necklaces for 
their friends and loved ones… fun!

00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.520
But it’s not just decline and depopulation that  

00:11:16.520 --> 00:11:21.080
seem to be spurring desperate moves by the 
Chinese authorities. It’s the demographic  

00:11:21.080 --> 00:11:25.760
shifts that come with it. And I’m not 
just talking about an aging society.

00:11:25.760 --> 00:11:31.360
Because, while Han Chinese are experiencing 
massively declining birth rates, it’s a different  

00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:37.760
matter for the more than 125 million people 
that make up China’s 55 ethnic minority groups.

00:11:37.760 --> 00:11:40.160
Regions such as Inner Mongolia,

00:11:40.160 --> 00:11:41.440
Gansu Province,

00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:43.240
and Guizhou Province…

00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:48.240
have all experienced population decline 
in recent years among Han Chinese,  

00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:53.520
but this was partly counterbalanced by 
higher birth rates among minority groups.

00:11:53.520 --> 00:11:58.640
Across China, 13 percent of all newborns 
had minority background in 2000, and their  

00:11:58.640 --> 00:12:05.880
population as a whole was estimated to make up 
almost 9 percent of the total population by 2020,  

00:12:05.880 --> 00:12:11.880
which is quite a change from the 1960s, 
when they made up less than 6 percent.

00:12:11.880 --> 00:12:14.840
Of course, Xi is super happy 
with all minority groups,  

00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:22.480
and even sends some of them and their families 
off to camps for free to thank them… fun!

00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:26.360
Now, we do have to be a bit careful with 
these numbers. After all, they’re all based  

00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:31.720
on official Chinese figures, which, according 
to researchers, aren’t always the most reliable,  

00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:36.800
due to low quality data collection, incentives 
for local governments to either inflate or deflate  

00:12:36.800 --> 00:12:42.080
certain population numbers, and the sensitivity 
of the issue for the Chinese leadership.

00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:46.920
This means that the actual minority population 
of China and its growth could be higher than  

00:12:46.920 --> 00:12:51.520
what the official data shows, which sounds like 
a good thing, given that many minority groups  

00:12:51.520 --> 00:12:55.620
live in the border regions where Chinese 
officials are fussing about depopulation.

00:12:55.620 --> 00:12:59.280
But the Chinese authorities don’t 
seem to be rejoicing about it.

00:12:59.280 --> 00:13:04.120
For example, one of China’s fastest growing 
minority groups, the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs,  

00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:09.280
saw their birth rate almost cut 
in half between 2017 and 2019,  

00:13:09.280 --> 00:13:12.040
according to the government’s own numbers.

00:13:12.040 --> 00:13:17.520
That sudden drop coincided with an 
intensified crackdown on the Uyghur people,

00:13:17.520 --> 00:13:23.360
with mounting evidence indicating that many Uyghur 
women have been coerced into taking birth control

00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:28.760
and subjected to forced sterilization. 
Which — and I’m no scientist or  

00:13:28.760 --> 00:13:34.360
anything — doesn’t sound like it’ll help 
in the whole baby-making whatchamacallit.

00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:37.960
Although few have experienced the same 
draconian measures as the Uyghurs,  

00:13:37.960 --> 00:13:40.520
other Chinese minorities have been targeted, too,

00:13:40.520 --> 00:13:44.840
including the Mongolians, who have 
had their language banned in schools,

00:13:44.840 --> 00:13:48.320
as well as the Tibetans, whose 
children are increasingly getting  

00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:54.840
sent to Mandarin-dominated boarding schools, 
while Tibetan educators are disappearing.

00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:59.200
And measures that weaken children’s ties to 
their parents’ culture don’t sound like a  

00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:03.254
strategy you use if you want people to have more 
kids. That’s about as effective an aphrodisiac as  

00:14:03.254 --> 00:14:03.360
the movie Teeth corner box. If you know, you know… 
and you haven’t been the same since you’ve known.

00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:07.000
It’s become more difficult for us to know 
the effect of such policies, however, as the  

00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:12.000
authorities have stopped publishing statistics 
on the birth rates of separate non-Han groups.

00:14:12.760 --> 00:14:14.320
For…some reason.

00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:18.880
But there are clearly a lot of signs that the 
Chinese leadership are looking to restrict  

00:14:18.880 --> 00:14:25.640
minorities rather than tap into China’s ethnic 
mosaic to alleviate the depopulation issue.

00:14:25.640 --> 00:14:30.800
That’s not really a shock, as Xi is less the 
poster boy for minority empowerment and more  

00:14:30.800 --> 00:14:36.400
the kind of guy that stresses Chinese 
uniformity under the rule of the CCP. 

00:14:36.400 --> 00:14:40.520
But such posturing risks dealing a 
heavy blow to China’s national birth  

00:14:40.520 --> 00:14:43.600
rate at a time when it’s already in free fall.  

00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:47.440
And with the current generation of young 
Chinese people being small already as a  

00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:51.720
consequence of the one-child policy, 
it’s unlikely that there are enough  

00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:56.840
unemployed youths in the cities to 
revitalize the countryside and plug  

00:14:56.840 --> 00:15:00.560
all the expanding population 
gaps in the border regions –  

00:15:00.560 --> 00:15:03.640
unless robot college graduates count.

00:15:03.640 --> 00:15:07.640
So, despite the Chinese government’s 
desperate attempts to lift the birthrate,  

00:15:07.640 --> 00:15:11.640
the leadership seems to be willing 
to sacrifice population growth at  

00:15:11.640 --> 00:15:15.480
the altar of ethnic dominance for the Han Chinese.

00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:20.360
I guess at least, as China approaches zero 
births, the CCP is trying to make sure that  

00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:25.960
all of China across ethnic groups is 
heading towards dystopia together.

00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:30.000
While that certainly sounds grand, 
it’s less “Grandpa Xi” grand

00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.040
and more “Grandstanding Xi” grand. 

00:15:34.040 --> 00:15:38.200
And before you go, don’t forget to sign 
my petition. Apple—which just so happens  

00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:42.280
to rely on the China market for more 
than $50 billion in revenue per year,  

00:15:42.280 --> 00:15:47.360
could be censoring the China Uncensored App, 
by refusing to either approve it or reject it.

00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:53.526
So click below and sign this petition to tell 
Apple to not censor the China Uncensored App!

00:15:53.526 --> 00:15:53.560
I’m Chris Chappell. Click below.

00:15:53.560 --> 00:15:56.360
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.