Deadly new weapons could destroy Taiwan

And the US is helping China build them

Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell.

You can help us continue to uncensor China by  joining what I call the China Uncensored 50  

Cent Army. All it takes is as little as a dollar  per episode on the crowd funding website Patreon.  

Check out all the cool perks you  get on Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored.

China has a secret weapon. One so devastating,  it could even make an invasion of Taiwan  

possible. What is this secret weapon? American  greed. And stupidity. Don't forget stupidity.

Ok, technically that's two secret weapons. 

China is building advanced weapons  systems using American technology.  

And the Americans who are profiting  are looking the other way.

China is using American microchips  to build hypersonic weapons.  

Hypersonic missiles can travel  more than five times the speed of  

sound. Current missile defense systems  are next to useless against them.

With these weapons, China could target US Navy  ships or US bases in the Pacific. Or even Taiwan.  

Which China has promised to invade.  Chinese hypersonic missiles launched  

from the Chinese mainland could  reach Taiwan in just minutes.

It looks like China's military tested  one of these hypersonic missiles  

during a recent military drill.

These are not easy weapons to develop, though.  They require complex testing using supercomputers.  

Supercomputers require semiconductors, basically  the brains of these computers. And semiconductors,  

“are now China's top import, valued  at more than $300 billion a year,  

and a major priority in China's latest  Five-Year Plan for national development.”

The US has long restricted companies from selling  sensitive technology to the Chinese military.

But what about selling US technology  *private* Chinese companies? That's legal.

And that's where Phytium Technology comes in.

It's a private Chinese company,  founded in 2014 as a joint venture  

of the state-owned conglomerate  China Electronic Corporation,  

the National Supercomputing Center in  Tianjin, and the Tianjin municipal government.

That...doesn't sound private to me.

But who owns Phytium now? Well, according to  public records, “Phytium's ownership has changed  

hands over the years, but its shareholders  often have links to the [Chinese military].”

That doesn't sound private to me!

Currently, Phytium has partnered with the China  Aerodynamics Research and Development Center.  

Together they're doing research on hypersonic  missiles. Oh, by the way the China Aerodynamics  

Research and Development Center,  “is run by a PLA major general”.

That doesn't sound private to me!!!

In fact, the China Aerodynamics  Research and Development Center,  

“has been on the U.S. trade  blacklist — called the “entity list”—  

since 1999 for contributing to  'the proliferation of missiles.'” 

And in 2016, the US Commerce Department  put even more restrictions on it.

These connections are all in publicly available  documents. And yet, several American companies  

work with Phytium, because it's technically a  private Chinese company. And if you're technically  

*allowed* to sell them sensitive technology  and make money from it, what's wrong with that?

According to Eric Lee of  the Project 2049 Institute,  

“Phytium acts like an independent commercial  company. Its executives wear civilian clothes,  

but they are mostly former military  officers from [a military university].”

That military university is the National  University of Defense Technology,  

or NUDT. We've talked about it several times  on the show. Think of it like the MIT of the  

People's Liberation Army. We did a whole  episode about how Australian tax dollars  

are funding these Chinese military  universities, even on nuclear weapons testing.

Thanks, Australia. No, seriously. It's nice  to know it's not just the US being stupid.  

And greedy. 

And if it makes you feel better,  even Taiwan is being stupid.

A lot of Taiwanese companies rely on the China  market. 35% of Taiwan's trade is with China—a  

country that has promised to invade them!  Talk about sleeping with the enemy. 

Taiwan now makes some of the most advanced  semiconductors in the world. Especially the Taiwan  

Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. They make  microprocessors for Phytium. Which is using that  

technology to run tests on hypersonic missiles  that could be used against Taiwanese troops.

There are other Taiwanese  companies involved as well.  

But whether it's Taiwanese or American  companies, they all say the same thing—their  

technology is not going to the Chinese  military because Phytium is a private company. 

This is crazy! The Chinese Communist Party is even  open about what they call Military-Civil Fusion.  

The State Department has  said it's a way for the CCP  

“to ensure that new innovations simultaneously  advance economic and military development.”

And the Military-Civil Fusion  program is personally overseen  

by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Who  is also the head of the military.

THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE IT'S PRIVATE TO ME!

In the final days of the Trump Administration,  Phytium and a few other Chinese companies were  

going to be placed on an export black  list. But they ran out of time to do it. 

But there's good news! This past week, the  Biden administration officially added Phytium,  

along with six other Chinese  companies, to that blacklist.

It's nice to know that the Trump and  Biden administrations can agree on  

not selling US technology to companies literally  making missiles to be used against the US. 

Maybe there's hope after all. 

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

fans who support the show on Patreon.

davidKansasCity says, “It's past time  for the Philippians to take ownership of  

all the cool stuff China built for them on  the islands in the Philippians territory…”

Ahh, it would be something if the  Philippines managed to take all those  

nice man-made islands the Chinese Communist  Party built. But that won't be so easy to do. 

For one, several of those islands have missile  launchers on them. And are heavily militarized,  

despite the Chinese Communist Party's  promise to...not militarize them. 

Chinese leader Xi Jinping made that pledge during  a press conference with President Obama in 2015.

But hey, it depends on what your definition  of “militarized” is. Am I right? 

At this point, the Philippines, along with  other countries like Vietnam, are having a  

hard time just preventing China from taking  over more territory in the South China Sea. 

You see, China sends out a fleet of *private*  fishing boats into disputed territorial waters.  

Those *private* fishing  can number in the hundreds.

But these *private* fishing boats are actually  part of what the CCP calls the maritime militia.  

Except when the Chinese embassy denies they exist.

And wherever China's maritime militia  goes, the Chinese coast guard is close by.

During a recent surge, the Philippines counted,  

“254 [Chinese] ships as well as four  Chinese warships that day in the Spratlys”.

So if another country were to fire on  the quote unquote civilian fishermen,  

the Chinese Coast guard can rush  to their defense and be the hero.

In fact, China recently passed the Coast  Guard Law that allows for just that.

The law allows the Chinese Coast Guard to  “'use all necessary measures including weapons'  

when China's 'national sovereignty,  sovereign rights, and jurisdiction  

are being illegally infringed by foreign  organizations and individuals at sea.'”

Think of it like Military Fishing Fusion.

There are other issues holding back the  Philippines and all the other countries  

in territorial disputes with the Chinese  Communist Party. China plays a big role in  

their economies. And the coronavirus has given  the CCP yet another weapon in their arsenal. 

“Access to vaccines has become  a key concern for Duterte:  

Metro Manila was locked down again last week  amid the nation's worst coronavirus surge  

and the Philippines currently sources  most of its supply from China's Sinovac.”

But unless something is done to actually  stop the Chinese Communist Party,  

they will keep steadily expanding their  reach until they control everything. 

Thanks for your support, davidKansasCity.

You can also ask a question I might  answer on the show. If you'd like that,  

go to Patreon.com/ChinaUncensored and  contribute a dollar or more per episode.  

Your support is a big part of how  we can afford to make this show.

Thank you for watching. Once again  I'm Chris Chappell. See you next time.