Foreign Spies and Hostile Forces are out there

And only the Party can protect you

Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell.

It's almost time to celebrate the 100 year  anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party.  

And you know what that means! It's time to  crack down on sinister, hostile foreign forces.

You see, there's a problem with today's youth  in China. They don't love the Communist Party  

enough. In fact, some even are enamoured with  the West, and its false promises of freedom.

That's why at the end of last year,  

Chinese leader Xi Jinping started a  new campaign to boost youth patriotism.

And in the lead up to the CCP's 100-year  anniversary, people are being asked to  

monitor each other and whether they're  making harmful comments on history.

Which is basically anything  that's not the Party line.

And now, China is implementing  new counter espionage regulations.

These regulations target what the Communist  Party calls foreign spies and hostile forces. And  

anyone who might associate with  them. Well this sounds fun.

State-run Xinhua interviewed a senior official at  the Ministry of State Security. He said, “Overseas  

espionage and intelligence agencies and hostile  forces have intensified infiltration into China.”

And they're “stealing secrets in  various ways and in more fields,  

which poses a serious threat to China's  national security and interests.”

Oh, I see what's happening here.  

This is that thing where the Chinese Communist  Party criticizes “hostile foreign forces”  

for things that the Communist Party  is actually doing to other countries.

But it's not like these are  vague, overarching regulations.  

They're very limited in scope. The  regulations only apply to “agencies,  

groups, enterprises and institutions  and other social organizations”.

So....every possible organization then.

Is your Beijing stand-up comedy club being  infiltrated by hostile foreign forces?

No, seriously, because Beijing is monitoring  comedy shows for prohibited content.

Prohibited content like jokes.

Anyway, the Ministry of State  Security says these “agencies, groups,  

enterprises and institutions and other  social organizations” will be responsible  

for “arranging their working staff to sign  letters of commitment before taking up posts,  

reporting their activities related to national  security, giving education to personnel ahead of  

their departures abroad, and interviewing  personnel after their return to China.”

Great! Everyone gets a debriefing  if they've talked to foreigners.  

And it kind of sounds like that might  include universities and private businesses.

Also, the way it's set up sounds  like if one person gets in trouble,  

the entire organization gets in trouble.  

So you'll want to be as overbearing as possible  in how you implement these new regulations.

According to a Chinese national security expert  interviewed by state-run Global Times, “Cases of  

Chinese people working in various industries who  were wooed by money or intimidated to engage in  

espionage activities and became pawns of  foreign spy intelligence agencies are numerous.”

Yeah, that's exactly what Chinese  intelligence agencies do to Americans.

Anyway, this is part of a broader push  to warn Chinese people about the dangers  

of foreign spies. Global Times recently published  

this helpful graph to help educate the  masses about the risk of foreigners.

They may target University students

or young active internet users

using money, friendship, or beauty.

That's right young active  internet users. Beware my beauty.

Malcolm Davis , of the Australian Strategic  Policy Institute, says “[Beijing] is wanting  

to bring commercial companies, universities,  media and think tanks even more under government  

control to monitor and report the activities  of Western entities operating in China,  

so this makes it more challenging for Western  companies to do business than it already is.”

Even more challenging? Here's an idea:  

MAYBE WESTERN COMPANIES SHOULD  STOP DOING BUSINESS IN CHINA!

Crazy, I know.

Obviously, it's very vague what the Communist  Party means when it talks about spying.  

The Global Times gives an example of a  20 year old Chinese journalism student  

who worked for “a mainstream  Western media outlet”.

The student “engaged with more than 20 hostile  foreign groups and more than a dozen officials  

of a Western country”, providing evidence  “that could be used to stigmatize China”.

So it sounds like this student  journalist was...doing journalism.  

Journalism that damaged China's national  security. He was arrested in 2019.

If you ask me, the Party doesn't  want Chinese people interacting  

with Westerners and maybe hearing things  that might make them question the Party.

Which is why the main goal of these regulations  is not actually to stop foreign spies—but  

to give the CCP even more access  to spy on Chinese citizens.

Listen to this, “The regulation also gives  national security organs access to buildings,  

internal materials, electronical media kits”—yes,  

electronical—“facilities, or computers and  information systems of the companies involved.”

Of course that also applies  to Western companies in China.  

So in a way, the CCP is bringing together  Chinese people and Western companies by  

giving the shared experience...of being  spied on by Chinese authorities. Beautiful.

And now it's time to answer a question from a  member of the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army,  

fans who support us on the  crowd funding website Patreon.

Nick S asks, “Is Hong Kong still worth visiting?  

It's a shame I only found out in the  last year or so how awesome this city is.  

Once international travel opens up I'd like  to see it before it's changed completely…”

Now that's a great question. I love Hong Kong. One  of my favorite places I've ever visited. You know,  

despite it being the only  place I've been teargassed.

Beautiful city, great people, great food and  culture. However, the National Security Law  

is an absolute beast. Technically it applies to  everyone on the planet. So if you've been involved  

in criticizing the Chinese Communist Party  anywhere in the world, and you go to Hong Kong,  

you could get in trouble with authorities.  Now they said that would never happen.

But if you watch China  Uncensored on a regular basis,  

you know not to trust anything  the Chinese Communist Party says.

The sad fact is that Hong Kong is now pretty much  

just another Chinese city. Currently the  US State Department warns Americans should,  

“Reconsider travel to the PRC's Hong Kong  Special Administrative Region (SAR) due to  

both arbitrary enforcement of local laws  and COVID-19-related travel restrictions.”

And they specifically cite the dangers of the  National Security Law that I just talked about. 

So Nick, it's still possible to go to Hong Kong.  But it's a lot more risky than it used to be.  

You should basically treat it like  you're going to mainland China.

Thanks for your question Nick, and thanks for  joining the China Uncensored 50 cent army!

And a big thank you to everyone who supports China  Uncensored on Patreon. We could not do this show  

without you. So thank you for joining us in the  fight to expose the Chinese Communist Party to  

the world. If you're interested in joining,  head over to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored.

Once again I'm Chris Chappell, see you next time.