0:00:00.160,0:00:05.360
China is crashing towards a childless [br]society, while, surprise surprise,
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the Chinese government is finding ways to make the [br]situation even more dystopian than it already is.
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Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
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Well, it’s time to take a break from [br]fighting YouTube censorship.
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..so we can fight Apple’s censorship. I’m not [br]kidding. For the last few months,
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we’ve been building you an [br]exclusive China Uncensored app.
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Or at least, we designed it, programmed [br]it, and submitted it to Apple for review.
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They typically approve or reject an [br]app within 48 hours, a week at most.
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We submitted our app for review more than a [br]month ago, on January 24. After two weeks,
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we hadn’t gotten a response, so [br]we applied to expedite Apple’s
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processing. Still no response. Weird. So [br]we pulled that version and resubmitted it,
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hoping it would land with a new reviewer. Still, [br]no response. Now it’s been more than a month.
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No one from Apple has contacted us, and they [br]won’t approve or even reject our app—which they
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probably won’t do, because they have no [br]legitimate cause to reject our app.
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We tried everything we could. And [br]now we’re concerned that Apple is
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actually censoring us. But they [br]don’t want to explicitly say so,
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so they’re ghosting us. An Apple [br]a day is keeping us away.
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You might ask, But Chris, aren’t [br]you being paranoid? Maybe.
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Except Apple has censored China Uncensored before.
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Back in 2017, we built an app for Apple TV.
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Apple approved it, but then immediately [br]blocked it in mainland China, Hong Kong,
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and Taiwan. Their excuse? [br]“Apps must comply with all
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legal requirements in any location [br]where you make them available”.
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Well, our app did comply with [br]the laws in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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But it took 10,000 of you signing [br]this online petition to Apple to
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pressure them to uncensor us. Which was kind of [br]important since Uncensored is our whole thing.
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So here’s what I want you to do now. [br]Sign our new petition calling on Apple
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to NOT CENSOR the China Uncensored [br]App! The link is in the description.
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But hey, maybe it’s all just a big [br]misunderstanding or just a simple
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technical delay. That would be great. In [br]which case, the petition is just expressing
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your enthusiastic support for the coming China [br]Uncensored iOS app. So thank you for signing.
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Now back to the episode.
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping is great with kids.
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He gives them important lessons,[br]
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He shows them how to use a bucket safely,
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and he even tackles them, just for a bit of fun.
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Plus he sometimes sends them and their [br]families off to camps for free. What fun!
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In fact, Xi’s many interactions with
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Chinese children have landed him the [br]nickname “Grandpa Xi” in Chinese state
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media. And that’s the only nickname he [br]has. The rest definitely aren’t censored.
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And Grandpa Xi and his government [br]are so stoked about children that
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they want Chinese people to have more of them.
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To achieve that, in recent years, [br]the Chinese authorities have rolled
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out all sorts of incentives to try [br]to encourage Chinese baby-making,
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from subsidies and tax breaks for families
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to free fertility treatments [br]for couples trying to conceive.
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Some local officials might have gone to the [br]task with a bit too much enthusiasm, though,
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like those calling women to ask [br]whether they are pregnant, and,
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if not, when they’re planning to be.
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Which shouldn’t be a surprise. [br]Given how the CCP treats Taiwan,
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you can tell they don’t respect boundaries.
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Yet, despite all the various [br]attempts, it’s not working.
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China’s birth rate is declining fast,
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resulting in the national population [br]falling three years in a row now,
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and it has set the stage for [br]China to become a severely
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aging society by 2035. And that’s coming [br]from my favorite Chinese state-run media,
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Global Times, and the CCP health authority, [br]so the situation might be even worse!
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Hm, maybe if women get calls by even [br]more strangers from the government
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asking probing questions, that’ll [br]put them in a baby-making mood.
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The situation even appears to be accelerating, [br]as it came out recently that Chinese marriage
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rates took a record-setting plunge in 2024 – [br]dropping by about a fifth compared to 2023.
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That was an even deeper drop than during COVID,
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leaving marriage numbers at their lowest [br]since record-keeping began in 1986.
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And with family life in China centered around [br]the institution of marriage, no weddings means
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no babies.
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But as Chinese society races towards zero births,
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it’s not just the prospect of an [br]aging society that’s raising alarms.
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In fact, China is heading for a geographic [br]and ethnic sea change the likes of which
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Grandpa Xi and his government have never [br]seen. And really really don’t want to see.
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You see, if there’s one thing Xi likes almost as
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much as growing the Chinese family, [br]it’s growing the Chinese countryside.
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Literally. Here he is inspecting a vegetable [br]field in Hubei Province in late 2024 and
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telling farmers how to do stuff. Man, he just [br]loves telling people how to spread their seed.
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But they love him for it in the rural areas, [br]as this very natural clapping scene suggests.
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Such trips to the provinces are [br]part of Xi’s push to breathe new
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life into the Chinese countryside [br]– a central mission of his.
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Chinese development in the cities,
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especially on the country’s east coast, [br]has long outpaced the development
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in the countryside, creating one of the [br]largest rural-urban income gaps in the world.
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At the same time, large parts of rural China are [br]plagued by issues such as soil degradation and
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deindustrialization.
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Do, uh… you have any helpful advice [br]for that, Grandpa Xi? Any at all?
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But the declining birthrate is now putting [br]Xi’s rural development plans under threat.
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It actually used to be that higher birth [br]numbers in rural China compensated for
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the lower birth rates in the Chinese [br]cities, but that is no longer the case.
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Today, births among young people in rural areas
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are dropping more rapidly than [br]among their urban counterparts.
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On top of that, Chinese people continue to [br]migrate from the countryside to the cities,
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contributing to some rural areas [br]becoming severely depopulated – a
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phenomenon referred to in China as [br]“hollowed out” towns and villages.
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And it’s especially bad in some [br]of the regions bordering China’s
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neighboring countries. These towns are [br]more hollow than one of the CCP’s promises.
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Not far from the Chinese border [br]with Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam,
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which is formed by the two [br]southern provinces of Yunnan
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and Guangxi,
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there have been accounts of border towns [br]and villages turning into ghost towns
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after locals either died out or abandoned them [br]for better living elsewhere. Which is bleak,
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but at least not as bleak as back [br]when places became ghost towns
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because all the locals starved [br]to death. Ain’t communism grand?
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In the north, along the Chinese [br]border with Mongolia and Russia,
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the situation is even more dire.
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There, the population of the [br]region of Inner Mongolia fell
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from almost 25 million people in [br]2010 to just 24 million in 2022,
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and the province of Heilongjiang [br]went from more than 38 million
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people in 2010 to less than 32 million in 2020.
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These declines have raised deep [br]concerns among the Chinese authorities,
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with one government adviser [br]saying in November that
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“to bolster national security amid [br]a countrywide demographic slide,
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China should turn its eyes to the declining [br]populations of its towns bordering Central Asia”,
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while the ever glorious Global [br]Times said last year that Inner
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Mongolia is the "northern gateway" and [br]the "moat" of the capital city Beijing
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that shoulders a major political [br]responsibility in safeguarding
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national security and border stability.
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The Global Times also reported that the [br]leader of Inner Mongolia had vowed to
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implement “comprehensive measures to attract [br]more people to settle and live in border areas,
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and ensure human shields- I mean [br]national unity and border security”.
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While the population decline is [br]immense, it isn’t exactly clear,
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though, what sort of immediate national [br]security threats could emerge from it.
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After all, it’s rare to see Mongolian hordes [br]come riding down from the north these days,
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and that’s what the Great Wall proudly [br]rises to protect against, anyway.
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However, the Chinese Communist Party is [br]notoriously obsessed with appearing strong,
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and having large stretches of the northern regions [br]looking like this doesn’t exactly signal strength.
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Certainly not like Grandpa Xi’s super tough rough [br]housing. What a tough guy! And an awesome grandpa!
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China does have some real [br]reasons to want to appear strong.
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For example, in the late 19th century, when [br]China also looked weak on its northern front,
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Russia seized the opportunity to [br]annex vast areas of Chinese territory.
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Given the state of the China-Russia [br]relationship in the 21st century,
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it seems unlikely that the Russians [br]would make a similar move again,
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but then, few thought that Putin would [br]be crazy enough to invade Ukraine,
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so, who knows. His promises are also [br]just as hollow as those ghost towns.
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In China’s southern borderlands,
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though, the potential effects of [br]depopulation are much more immediate.
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In the south, the Chinese government has [br]long struggled to assert and maintain
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control, especially along the nearly [br]1,400-mile-long border with Myanmar.
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Not only is the cross-border area a patchwork [br]of ethnic minorities, the dense jungle and
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mountainous terrain also make large stretches [br]of the region difficult to traverse and monitor.
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This makes the region a hotbed for illicit trade [br]and smuggling – including people smuggling,
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in which crime syndicates based in Myanmar have [br]lured Chinese people into the war-torn country,
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where tens of thousands are currently [br]enslaved and forced to work as cyber scammers.
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Of course, this explains why people [br]might want to leave the area,
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but when locals begin rapidly disappearing, [br]either into Chinese cities or into Myanmar
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scam centers, there’s not much left in [br]the towns to maintain a strong border.
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But not to worry – Xi has an excellent way [br]to solve all of China’s rural problems.
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He has called for Chinese youths to make [br]greater contributions to rural revitalization.
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This sentiment was mirrored by an action plan [br]announced in 2023 by the local government in
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Guangdong Province that aims to send 300,000 [br]college students to the countryside by this
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year. Which I’m sure is just what they [br]were hoping to gain from going to college.
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This plan would have the added bonus of getting [br]unemployed youth out of the cities, where they
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might stir up trouble and unrest and start getting [br]crazy ideas about autonomy and freedom of speech.
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The whole thing is also a fun throwback to the [br]Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, when
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millions of Chinese young people were sent to [br]the countryside to educate and be educated. Oh,
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and a whole bunch of people [br]were killed. You know… fun!
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Xi himself has often spoken fondly about the time [br]he himself spent in a rural village back then.
0:10:59.840,0:11:01.800
Those were indeed splendid days,
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with Chinese youths gathering to exercise [br]with hammers on Chinese cultural treasures
0:11:07.360,0:11:13.840
and making oversized necklaces for [br]their friends and loved ones… fun!
0:11:13.840,0:11:16.520
But it’s not just decline and depopulation that
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seem to be spurring desperate moves by the [br]Chinese authorities. It’s the demographic
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shifts that come with it. And I’m not [br]just talking about an aging society.
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Because, while Han Chinese are experiencing [br]massively declining birth rates, it’s a different
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matter for the more than 125 million people [br]that make up China’s 55 ethnic minority groups.
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Regions such as Inner Mongolia,
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Gansu Province,
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and Guizhou Province…
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have all experienced population decline [br]in recent years among Han Chinese,
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but this was partly counterbalanced by [br]higher birth rates among minority groups.
0:11:53.520,0:11:58.640
Across China, 13 percent of all newborns [br]had minority background in 2000, and their
0:11:58.640,0:12:05.880
population as a whole was estimated to make up [br]almost 9 percent of the total population by 2020,
0:12:05.880,0:12:11.880
which is quite a change from the 1960s, [br]when they made up less than 6 percent.
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Of course, Xi is super happy [br]with all minority groups,
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and even sends some of them and their families [br]off to camps for free to thank them… fun!
0:12:22.480,0:12:26.360
Now, we do have to be a bit careful with [br]these numbers. After all, they’re all based
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on official Chinese figures, which, according [br]to researchers, aren’t always the most reliable,
0:12:31.720,0:12:36.800
due to low quality data collection, incentives [br]for local governments to either inflate or deflate
0:12:36.800,0:12:42.080
certain population numbers, and the sensitivity [br]of the issue for the Chinese leadership.
0:12:42.080,0:12:46.920
This means that the actual minority population [br]of China and its growth could be higher than
0:12:46.920,0:12:51.520
what the official data shows, which sounds like [br]a good thing, given that many minority groups
0:12:51.520,0:12:55.620
live in the border regions where Chinese [br]officials are fussing about depopulation.
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But the Chinese authorities don’t [br]seem to be rejoicing about it.
0:12:59.280,0:13:04.120
For example, one of China’s fastest growing [br]minority groups, the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs,
0:13:04.120,0:13:09.280
saw their birth rate almost cut [br]in half between 2017 and 2019,
0:13:09.280,0:13:12.040
according to the government’s own numbers.
0:13:12.040,0:13:17.520
That sudden drop coincided with an [br]intensified crackdown on the Uyghur people,
0:13:17.520,0:13:23.360
with mounting evidence indicating that many Uyghur [br]women have been coerced into taking birth control
0:13:23.360,0:13:28.760
and subjected to forced sterilization. [br]Which — and I’m no scientist or
0:13:28.760,0:13:34.360
anything — doesn’t sound like it’ll help [br]in the whole baby-making whatchamacallit.
0:13:34.360,0:13:37.960
Although few have experienced the same [br]draconian measures as the Uyghurs,
0:13:37.960,0:13:40.520
other Chinese minorities have been targeted, too,
0:13:40.520,0:13:44.840
including the Mongolians, who have [br]had their language banned in schools,
0:13:44.840,0:13:48.320
as well as the Tibetans, whose [br]children are increasingly getting
0:13:48.320,0:13:54.840
sent to Mandarin-dominated boarding schools, [br]while Tibetan educators are disappearing.
0:13:54.840,0:13:59.200
And measures that weaken children’s ties to [br]their parents’ culture don’t sound like a
0:13:59.200,0:14:03.254
strategy you use if you want people to have more [br]kids. That’s about as effective an aphrodisiac as
0:14:03.254,0:14:03.360
the movie Teeth corner box. If you know, you know… [br]and you haven’t been the same since you’ve known.
0:14:03.360,0:14:07.000
It’s become more difficult for us to know [br]the effect of such policies, however, as the
0:14:07.000,0:14:12.000
authorities have stopped publishing statistics [br]on the birth rates of separate non-Han groups.
0:14:12.760,0:14:14.320
For…some reason.
0:14:14.320,0:14:18.880
But there are clearly a lot of signs that the [br]Chinese leadership are looking to restrict
0:14:18.880,0:14:25.640
minorities rather than tap into China’s ethnic [br]mosaic to alleviate the depopulation issue.
0:14:25.640,0:14:30.800
That’s not really a shock, as Xi is less the [br]poster boy for minority empowerment and more
0:14:30.800,0:14:36.400
the kind of guy that stresses Chinese [br]uniformity under the rule of the CCP.
0:14:36.400,0:14:40.520
But such posturing risks dealing a [br]heavy blow to China’s national birth
0:14:40.520,0:14:43.600
rate at a time when it’s already in free fall.
0:14:43.600,0:14:47.440
And with the current generation of young [br]Chinese people being small already as a
0:14:47.440,0:14:51.720
consequence of the one-child policy, [br]it’s unlikely that there are enough
0:14:51.720,0:14:56.840
unemployed youths in the cities to [br]revitalize the countryside and plug
0:14:56.840,0:15:00.560
all the expanding population [br]gaps in the border regions –
0:15:00.560,0:15:03.640
unless robot college graduates count.
0:15:03.640,0:15:07.640
So, despite the Chinese government’s [br]desperate attempts to lift the birthrate,
0:15:07.640,0:15:11.640
the leadership seems to be willing [br]to sacrifice population growth at
0:15:11.640,0:15:15.480
the altar of ethnic dominance for the Han Chinese.
0:15:15.480,0:15:20.360
I guess at least, as China approaches zero [br]births, the CCP is trying to make sure that
0:15:20.360,0:15:25.960
all of China across ethnic groups is [br]heading towards dystopia together.
0:15:25.960,0:15:30.000
While that certainly sounds grand, [br]it’s less “Grandpa Xi” grand
0:15:30.000,0:15:34.040
and more “Grandstanding Xi” grand.
0:15:34.040,0:15:38.200
And before you go, don’t forget to sign [br]my petition. Apple—which just so happens
0:15:38.200,0:15:42.280
to rely on the China market for more [br]than $50 billion in revenue per year,
0:15:42.280,0:15:47.360
could be censoring the China Uncensored App, [br]by refusing to either approve it or reject it.
0:15:47.360,0:15:53.526
So click below and sign this petition to tell [br]Apple to not censor the China Uncensored App!
0:15:53.526,0:15:53.560
I’m Chris Chappell. Click below.
0:15:53.560,0:15:56.360
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell. See you next time.