Is Biden striking a tough stance?

Or is China running the show

That and more on this week's China news headlines

Welcome to China Uncensored. I'm Chris Chappell.

This week marks the first  high-level meeting between  

the Biden Administration and Chinese  officials. And a lot is at stake.

But first, I got to tell you, YouTube has been  demonetizing us a lot. For this show to continue,  

we need your support on the crowd funding website  Patreon. For as little as a dollar an episode,  

you can help us continue to uncensor China.  Visit Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored for more.

So as I said, this is the first showdown  between the Biden Administration and China.

The meeting happened in Alaska. This is  a big deal. Biden (Corner Box) has not  

made his administration's China policy  clear yet. He's still reviewing a lot  

of Trump administration China policies,  from bans on Chinese apps like WeChat.

To tariffs.

To even whether to label the Chinese Communist  Party's persecution of Uyghurs as genocide.

Some people have the impression the  Biden Administration is soft on China.  

That's because of past China failures  from key administration officials,  

as well as the fallout from  the Hunter Biden scandal. 

But President Biden doesn't  want to be seen as soft.  

So in the lead up to the first meeting, the  Biden Administration struck a tough stance.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his  first trip to Asia. And it was all about China. 

First stop was Japan. Blinken was joined  by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

A warning to China from U.S. Secretary  of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday,  

as he cautioned it against  using "coercion and aggression".

Blinken was specifically calling out the  Chinese regime's actions in the South China Sea.

“We're united in the vision of a free and open  Indo-Pacific region, where countries follow the  

rules, cooperate whenever they can, and resolve  their differences peacefully. And in particular  

we will push back if necessary when China  uses coercion or aggression to get its way.”

China was obviously not happy about that.

But then he was off to South Korea.  Where he had a pretty similar message.

“China is using coercion and aggression to  systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong,  

undercut democracy in Taiwan, abuse  human rights and Xinjiang in Tibet  

and assert maritime claims in the South  China Sea that violate international law.”

And speaking of Hong Kong,  

the Biden Administration has just  announced their first Chinese sanctions.

They're sanctioning 24 Chinese  and Hong Kong officials over  

the latest crackdown on Hong Kong's Democracy.

Which is great news. However, these  officials were already sanctioned by Trump. 

“All of these officials, who include senior  Chinese lawmakers and Hong Kong-based security  

officials, had already been hit with  sanctions by the Trump administration.”

Trump's sanctions froze the US assets of these  24 officials, banned them from entering the US,  

and stopped Americans from doing  business with these officials. 

Biden's sanctions now also punish  any foreign financial institutions  

that conduct business with these officials,  even if those institutions aren't American.

The new sanctions were made  under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act,  

bipartisan legislation that was passed last  year. The Trump administration had also used  

that act to sanction many high ranking officials,  including Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam.

We did an episode last year on why  these sanctions are so powerful.

It's nice to see Biden and Trump  agreeing on so many things. 

But the Biden administration's ramp up to this  

high-level meeting wasn't just about  Hong Kong. Days before the meeting,  

the US government also approved the export  of sensitive submarine parts for Taiwan.

That will help Taiwan protect itself  from a potential Chinese invasion.  

Unless those sensitive submarine  parts are screen doors.

A big question on everyone's mind  is how Biden will handle Trump's  

tariffs on China and the phase one trade deal.  

But according to National Security Advisor Jake  Sullivan, that won't be a focus in the talks.

Instead he suggested the talks will focus  on big picture strategy and American values.

At a White House press briefing, he said, “This  is our effort to communicate clearly to the  

Chinese government how the United States intends  to proceed at a strategic level, what we believe  

our fundamental interests and values are, and  what our concerns with their activities are.”

I hope that clear communication involves  telling the Chinese government to:  

Stop. Committing. Genocide.

And after the break, Apple may be getting  nervous about slave labor in China.

Welcome back.

It looks like Apple has cut ties  with the Chinese company Ofilm.  

They make selfie cameras for the iPhone. And  may have been using slave labor from Xinjiang.

Apple's massive supply chain  has a lot of links in China.  

That's why Apple has lobbied so hard against  the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. 

Meanwhile, Ofilm told investors  it had lost a “particular  

overseas client” but didn't name the client.

So why did Apple drop Ofilm?  Well, according to reports,  

Apple dropped Ofilm a few months ago. That would  have been after Ofilm was listed in this report  

as a company that used Uyghur slave labor.

So good on Apple for doing something about it. But  considering how widespread Uyghur forced labor is,  

Apple will need to do a lot  more than drop one supplier  

to make sure its iPhones aren't  made with some kind of slave labor.

Speaking of the Uyghurs, Australia joins Turkey  

in refusing to call China's  persecution of Uyghurs a genocide.

I mean, you don't want to be seen as doing  business with acountry that commits genocide.  

So just don't label it genocide.

So despite the 3 billion dollars lost in the  trade war China launched against Australia...

clearly there are still enough people  in the Australian government who  

hope to one day get rich  again by working with China.

And some good news for people who still want  to travel to mainland China for some reason.  

It's easier to get in, as long as you get  vaccinated. But only with the Chinese vaccine.

At least one of the Chinese vaccines  is only about 50% effective. But hey,  

the Communist Party would rather people use their  vaccine and be more at risk, than the alternative.

But remember, everyone, according Chinese  state-run media, vaccine nationalism is bad.

But if you do get into China after  taking one of their vaccines,  

no word yet on whether or not you'll  be exempted from the anal swabs. 

And now it's time for me to answer a question from  a member of the China Uncensored 50 cent army,  

fans who support the show on Patreon.

Today's question comes from:

Arpanet-at-Cern “Hey Chris, any update on  when/if the China Uncensored merch store  

will be back? I'm still itching to  grab some for my friends and family.  

Also, great job as always to you and the team.”

Great question! We actually do have a merch  store on our website, ChinaUncensored.tv.

But it's only in soft-launch. You can buy one  of our t-shirt designs now. But we're waiting  

to do a big public launch until after we get  our new China Uncensored logo and graphics.

That's being done by the same team that  made the America Uncovered graphics.  

Once we have that done, we'll do a video  about the merch store. So stay tuned.

And remember, the reason we're  able to update our graphics is  

thanks to the amazing support  from viewers like you on Patreon.  

Because of YouTube demonetization, we  wouldn't have enough money to run the show,  

let alone improve the look of it. So a big thank  you to everyone who contributes on Patreon.

If you'd like to join Arpanent  at Cern as a member of the China  

Uncensored 50 cent army, head over to  Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored to learn more.

Once again I'm Chris Chappell.  Thanks for watching China Uncensored.