Becomes a Propaganda Battlefield

No use crying over spilt ramen

Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell.

Last week, the Biden Administration  had its first high level talks  

with the Chinese Communist Party. 

They did not go well.

A four-minute photo shoot “ended up lasting one  hour and 15 minutes due to a frothy exchange.”

Frothy—good in a cappuccino,  bad in diplomatic talks.

We did a full rundown of the meeting on America  Uncovered. I'll put a link to that episode below. 

But now that it's over, the Chinese  Communist Party is using the meeting  

to attack the US. I know, surprised Pikachu face. 

The Editor-in-Chief of my favorite  state-run media, the Global Times,  

tweeted this gif of the meeting. Which  I can't say is entirely inaccurate.

And this China Daily reporter  compared the meeting to a treaty  

Western powers forced the Qing Dynasty to  sign in 1901. That's a bit less accurate.

That 1901 meeting forced China to pay  for the costs of the Boxer Rebellion.  

The treaty is considered part of China's  century of humiliation, one of the Communist  

Party's favorite propaganda lines—the idea  that foreign powers try to humiliate China.

That's why Global Times has been running with  the line that the US is pushing white supremacy.

Ahead of the meeting, National  Security Advisor Jake Sullivan  

said they would talk to China  from a position of strength.

So state-run media is framing  that as the same thing as the 1901  

Qing Dynasty treaty. As if the  US is trying to bully China.

When the truth is, the Chinese  Communist Party is committing genocide,  

and it's been waging a war  against the US for decades. 

I talked about that in this episode  about who started the New Cold War. 

But perhaps the Chinese Communist  Party's biggest propaganda win  

from the meeting, involves instant noodles. 

See, if you're the Chinese Communist Party, you  spin anything into propaganda. It's what you do.

And the US China meeting was  full of opportunities for that.

In particular, this moment, when 70-year  old Chinese Communist Party official Yang  

Jiechi told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang  Yi that he had instant noodles for lunch.

It went viral in China. “The topic was discussed  on Weibo [which is Chinese social media]  

in multiple threads and under the  hashtags 'Yang Jiechi Had Instant  

Noodles for Lunch' and 'The Instant  Noodles Yang Jiechi Had for Lunch'.  

The latter received 270 million  views on Weibo by Sunday evening.”

The “Yang Jiechi Had Instant Noodles for  Lunch” hashtag was started by Communist  

Party mouthpiece the People's Daily. And since  the original video was pushed by state-run CGTN  

you know the Chinese Communist Party wants  Noodle Gate to be on everyone's mind.

What's the big deal about Yang  Jiechi eating instant noodles?

Because it's supposedly a sign  of US disrespect for China.  

Instead of hosting a banquet  to honor top Chinese officials,  

poor 70-year old Yang Jiechi was forced  to choke down some instant noodles.

According to an Associate Professor  of Contemporary Chinese Studies  

at University of Nottingham, “It  fits the narrative that the US  

is inhospitable & disrespectful, incapable of  treating China as a power of equal standing.”

That was the theme on Weibo as well. According  to the blog What's on Weibo some netizens wrote,  

“The American etiquette is unsatisfactory.”

“Let's not pay attention to food,  they completely lack etiquette.” 

“Jeez, these Americans don't  even care about food.” 

“It's extremely insulting.” 

“This is a superpower, their  strategy is despicable,  

to send our diplomatic staff  off with a bucket of noodles!” 

So was the Biden Administration really being  disrespectful of the Chinese delegation?

Well, according to George Washington  University Law Professor Donald Clarke,  

there was no big joint banquet because of Covid  safety concerns. And China had agreed to that.

So why did Yang Jiechi choose to eat instant  noodles instead of getting a proper meal  

from the hotel? Well, one reason might be  that Yang was expressing how hardworking  

he was. He takes his job so seriously, he doesn't  even take time to eat more than instant noodles.

Or maybe it was planned so that the “instant  noodles” comment could be overheard by Chinese  

state-run media. Which could then run with  that and talk about how awful the US is.

Yes, the US is so awful...that Yang Jiechi sent  his daughter to Connecticut to attend Yale.

But maybe I'm being unfair to Yang Jiechi. Maybe  he just really likes instant noodles. After all,  

instant noodles are a really popular  food for Chinese traveling abroad.  

In fact, Chinese leader Xi Jinping  actually told Chinese tourists  

to stop eating so many instant noodles,  because it was making China look bad.

So maybe the real Noodle Gate is the fact that  Yang Jiechi didn't listen to Xi Jinping. Uh oh. 

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

fans who support China Uncensored on  the crowd funding website Patreon.

Audun Johansen asks, “Hey, Chris.  

Why is the US not giving Taiwan  nukes? For deterrence of course.”

Well that's a very interesting question. Most  people don't know this, but during the Cold War,  

the US actually did deploy nuclear weapons  on Taiwan. It was part of the United States  

Taiwan Defense Command. But in 1972,  the US President ordered their removal.

The timing is significant because that was  around the time the world gradually began  

to recognize the People's Republic of China  as China, while Taiwan was given the shaft.  

Taiwan even lost its seat on the UN Security  Council when it was given to the PRC. 

Now certainly, if Taiwan had nukes, that might  be a big deterrent to a Chinese invasion,  

but it's always been controversial. It would  be a big escalation for the US to give Taiwan  

nukes. And so far no US administration has wanted  to irk the Chinese Communist Party that much.  

But even inside Taiwan, it's controversial. And  not just nuclear weapons—even nuclear power.

“There is already a huge movement against  the use of nuclear power in Taiwan.  

Indeed, until the recent round of referendums,  the DPP government was committed to shutting down  

all of Taiwan's nuclear power stations by 2025.”

Hope that answers your question Audun.

And thank you for watching. If you'd like  me to answer your question on the show,  

join the China Uncensored 50 Cent army for  as little as a dollar per episode on the  

crowd funding website Patreon. Visit  patreon.com/chinauncensored for more.

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