Unexpected side effects

to Chinese genetically engineered babies

And facial recognition technology—

it's not just for humans anymore!

That and more on this week's China news headlines.

This is China Uncensored.

I'm Chris Chappell.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

for the latest China news,

and click the notification bell

so you get an alert

each time we publish a new episode.

This week's China news headlines.

A video game is causing tensions

between China and Taiwan to get...

even more tense.

This is Devotion,

a Taiwanese psychological horror game.

You can tell it's really scary

because you have to do math.

It's set in the 1980s,

in a creepy run down apartment

of a family of religious devotees.

And you need to figure out what happened.

Speaking of figuring out what happened,

people were trying to figure out why the game

suddenly disappeared on Steam.

That's a website where you can buy video games.

It has to do with an ancient curse.

The ancient curse being China's plan to take over Taiwan,

by force if necessary.

You see, sharp-eyed Chinese gamers spotted this.

Spooky, eh.

It's called a Fulu talisman.

Daoist priests

would draw talismans to ward off evil spirits

or give instructions to spirits.

This one is a curse spell.

In traditional Chinese culture

this is considered very evil.

It's the equivalent of stabbing a voodoo doll.

And this one has written on it,

Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh Moron.

Chinese players were not happy.

If you don't know,

Xi Jinping has often been compared with

the lovable Pooh bear,

which oddly makes Xi Jinping, not happy.

So Chinese players responded by flooding the game's page

with thousands of negative reviews.

And then at some point,

it was taken down from Steam.

By the way, Valve, the parent company of Steam,

is trying to open a local Chinese version.

Though apparently Chinese netizens aren't happy about it.

They can already access

the global version of Steam with a VPN.

And they're concerned that if there's

a separate Chinese version of Steam,

it would have all the good games censored.

Really?!

Well, anyway, after the Devotion game

disappeared from Steam,

the company that made it wrote a public apology.

And they said the game was pulled

because of technical issues.

Well, I guess in a sense that's true,

since this did cause the game to crash and burn.

Now Red Candle Games is creating a patch

that will remove the cursed talisman,

but there's another problem.

“Chinese players have downloaded

a pirated version of Devotion

that couldn't be patched

and still continued to offend Chinese users.”

LOL.

So yes, US warships just recently

sailed through the Taiwan Strait.

But it's a video game that's really upsetting

cross-strait relations.

But the youth of China might have

a bigger problem to worry about—

internet censorship.

Of themselves, not of others.

This year alone WeChat has blocked

more than 40,000 accounts.

Pretty good for only two months.

And a new target is sang culture.

According to Tech in Asia,

“It loosely translates to funeral or mourning,

but it can also mean hopeless or dispirited.”

Working 12 hours a day at a job

that won't even cover rent in Beijing?

That's sang.

Weibo has also blocked accounts

that “peddle anxiety.”

So don't look to these web platforms

as an outlet for your existential angst anymore,

Chinese millennials.

Because you can't have Communist Party spirit

if you're so sad.

Not to worry though!

Teenage angst

will soon be a thing of the past in China!

Because, well, teenagers may also be

a thing of the past.

Birth rates are falling in China.

Like, a lot.

Even though the Communist Party ended the One Child Policy

by implementing a slightly more liberal Two Child Policy,

“There were 15.23 million new births in 2018,

down by more than 11 percent from the year before.”

And the downward trend has been going on

for a couple of years now.

In fact, birth rates started dropping in the 1960s,

well before the One Child policy even started.

So why was the One Child Policy necessary in the first place?

Good question.

China's overall population growth is slowing,

but it hasn't yet started to actually shrink.

But China is rapidly becoming a country of old people,

as birth rates go down and life expectancy goes up.

Now to be fair, old Chinese people can be amazing.

But they're also not necessarily economically productive—

especially when a lot of jobs

like farming or factory work are physically demanding.

So this puts more of a burden

on those young people who do work.

And according to the New York Times,

“Should China increase welfare benefits

in line with high-income countries—

a stated aspiration of the Chinese leadership—

[welfare benefits] could take up to 32 percent of

the gross domestic product by 2050.”

But hey, it's the same Communist Party

that felt just fine with a One Child Policy

that resulted in hundreds of millions of abortions.

So I'm sure they could “solve” the problem

of too many elderly people with a brand new snack food

that's truly of the people—Soylent Red.

One more reason not to eat food that's made in China.

So birth rates are down.

But there's been a dramatic increase

in the number of genetically engineered super babies!

There were zero a year ago,

and now there are two.

In November,

a Chinese scientist announced

he had successfully created GMO babies,

which was very against the rules

according to Chinese authorities.

The scientist behind the experiment, He Jiankui,

deleted a gene in the fetus's DNA.

And in doing so,

he may have granted the twin girls immunity to HIV.

But there could be another upside, too.

According to this MIT Technology review,

this may have also enhanced their brains.

New research seems to show that removing that gene

not only makes mice smarter,

but also improves stroke recovery in humans

and has been linked to success in school.

So...the genetically modified twins

will do better in school

because part of their DNA was removed?

I feel bad for all of their schoolmates,

whose parents will ask them why they didn't have

their genes illegally edited to be smarter.

In other tech news,

the Chinese Communist Party has created

an unparalleled surveillance state,

complete with AI facial recognition technology.

So that's done.

What next?

Turn it on the pigs!

That's not a slur.

I'm being serious.

Yes, China is creating

“A database of every pig's face.”

Supposedly, it's to fight swine flu.

China has been hit hard by it.

So by mapping pigs' faces

and installing voice recognition software,

no more swine flu.

Wait, I feel like there's a step missing somewhere.

Supposedly the idea is you'll be able to predict

if a pig is getting sick.

And there are several Chinese companies

working on the technology.

But a lot of Chinese farmers are skeptical

that this technology could even work,

saying it won't happen until pigs can fly.

Which has prompted another Chinese tech company

to work on a cutting-edge pig aviation app.

Speaking of flying pigs,

Chinese telecom company Huawei

has been on a PR tear,

trying to convince other countries

that Huawei is a private company

that has nothing to do with the Chinese government.

Have you ever given

any information to the Chinese government

in any way, shape, or form?

For the past 30 years, we have never done that,

and in the next 30 years to come,

we will never do that.

And then my favorite state-run media the Global Times

tweeted what looks like a propaganda video

of children singing about how much they love Huawei.

Huawei is good

Huawei is beautiful

Huawei makes me more intelligent

Teacher teaches me to love the motherland

Made in China cellphone, love Huawei

Huawei then came out with a statement

that this video was done independently

by Chinese netizens who just really love the company.

Because Huawei is a totally private company

that has nothing to do with the Chinese government.

And finally, relations between China and Canada

may not be so hot after Canada detained

Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou,

But things are at least warming up a bit,

now that China will be getting its first Tim Hortons.

And really, isn't that the best news you've heard all day?

And before you go, it's time when I answer a question

from a fan of the show who supports China Uncensored

on the crowd funding website Patreon.

Raunak Chhatwal asks,

“I saw an advchina Video where they said China

knows vpns are operating inside the country

and are allowing them to exist.

Why do you think they're doing this?”

Well you see, the Chinese Communist party

worked hard to build the massive system

of government surveillance and internet censorship

for the good of the people.

The Great Firewall of China is there for a reason—

to keep the Chinese internet walled off

from the rest of the Internet.

But then people just use VPNs to get around it.

So irresponsible.

That's why the Party started a major crackdown on them.

And decided to replace them with state backed versions.

It's all to create a more harmonious internet,

without all the pollution of alternative facts,

such as the truth.

Another reason is that the regime knows

that if it completely blocked VPNs,

foreigners and foreign companies wouldn't stand for it,

and they'd leave China.

So they'd rather just let people use VPNs,

but only the kind the Chinese government can control.

And maybe monitor.

Thanks for your question.

So why am I answering questions on the show?

It's because a lot of advertisers don't dare to work

with a show that criticizes the Chinese Communist Party.

So we rely on support from viewers like you

on the crowdfunding website Patreon.

Answering your questions on the show

is one of my ways of saying thank you.

So head over to patreon.com/chinaucnensored

to find out how you can keep China, uncensored.

Thanks for watching.