Rebel News Podcast - China's social media mass surveillance police state already a global affair

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. We've got a big show for you today. Two important parts. The first is

00:00:03.720 a terrifying video of an interrogation in China where someone is grilled by secret police for

00:00:10.700 what he said on a social media app called WeChat. The second is we talk to our friend Gordon Chang

00:00:16.480 about cyber security laws in China, which really give the Chinese government access to any app,

00:00:24.480 any data passing through that country. We talk a bit about Hong Kong. I'd like to invite you

00:00:29.480 to get the video version of this podcast. I'm just thinking about it. The video of the

00:00:33.100 interrogation I show you, you need to see it because we have the translation on the screen.

00:00:41.300 And I think you'll still have a successful podcast experience because I sort of explained it

00:00:45.380 afterwards. But it's one of those times where I wish you had the video version of this podcast.

00:00:50.060 You can get that by being a premium member at premium.rebelnews.com. It's eight bucks a month.

00:00:56.440 Well worth it, I think. All right. Here's the podcast.

00:00:59.480 Tonight, are you afraid to say anything critical about the government on social media?

00:01:18.880 I'll show you a video that'll make you scared. It's December 2nd, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:24.140 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:30.000 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:34.060 The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publisher, is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:39.920 The most popular social media sites in North America and Western Europe are Facebook and YouTube.

00:01:51.200 You know, Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp, too. It's huge.

00:01:55.220 Twitter isn't that big. It only has about 125 million users every day.

00:01:59.620 That's about a tenth the size of Facebook. It's smaller than Snapchat, too.

00:02:03.640 And a China-owned musical app called TikTok has taken off in the West, which has caused some concern given that Chinese law requires any companies there to divulge private information to their governments.

00:02:18.080 The other day, a Muslim girl named Feroza Aziz in America made a video on TikTok that looked like one of the zillions of makeup tutorials that young women make on social media.

00:02:30.560 But if you listen to her, you can hear that it's actually a political criticism of China and its treatment of Uyghur Muslims.

00:02:38.120 Take a look for a few moments.

00:02:40.060 Hi, guys. I'm going to teach you guys how to get long lashes.

00:02:42.960 So the first thing you need to do is grab your lash color, curl your lashes, obviously, then you're going to put them down and use your phone that you're using right now to search up what's happening in China, how they're getting concentration camps, throwing innocent Muslims in there, separating their families from each other, kidnapping them, murdering them, raping them, forcing them to eat pork, forcing them to drink, forcing them to convert different religions. 0.90

00:03:03.900 If not, or else they're going to, of course, get murdered.

00:03:06.820 People that go into these concentration camps, they'll come back alive.

00:03:09.520 This is another Holocaust, yet no one is talking about it. 0.77

00:03:12.560 Please be aware.

00:03:15.200 Please spread awareness.

00:03:16.680 And yeah, so you can grab your lash curler again.

00:03:21.140 Pretty smart, hey?

00:03:22.720 Well, TikTok took that down and suspended her account. 0.99

00:03:27.580 I think that girl's American. 1.00

00:03:29.140 She was talking on social media in America.

00:03:32.440 And she certainly wasn't saying anything that radical, certainly nothing violent.

00:03:38.620 Just by the fact that she wasn't wearing a hijab, you can tell that the girl herself isn't even that fundamentalist, but she criticized China.

00:03:46.580 So she was banned from TikTok.

00:03:49.420 She was later reinstated after a massive backlash. 0.53

00:03:52.460 But do you really think that's the last event?

00:03:54.420 The social media app, Twitter, that I mentioned before, it's used by politicians and journalists.

00:03:59.580 Lord knows that's where I'm the mouthiest. 0.64

00:04:01.800 But most of the politically oriented social media sites are banned in communist China.

00:04:08.000 Facebook and YouTube are.

00:04:09.460 And for good reason, people can communicate with each other in direct, unregulated ways.

00:04:15.100 The Hong Kong democracy organizers don't even trust Facebook or Twitter.

00:04:19.340 They prefer to use an app called Telegram.

00:04:21.860 Telegram, it's encrypted, it's created by Russian mathematicians. 0.99

00:04:25.780 But last year, Russia banned Telegram because Telegram refused to give the Russian secret police a backdoor key to their encrypted conversations.

00:04:37.760 Which tells you something about all the other apps not banned in Russia, doesn't it?

00:04:42.920 But my point is there are social networks in China, ones that we are less familiar with here in the West.

00:04:50.900 WeChat.

00:04:51.860 WeChat is the name of one of them.

00:04:53.540 I know people in Canada who use WeChat.

00:04:56.100 It has a billion users on any given month.

00:05:00.120 Not all in China.

00:05:01.380 They have their own payment app called WeChat Pay.

00:05:04.080 I've even seen that used in restaurants here in Canada.

00:05:07.540 You can pay using WeChat.

00:05:08.900 It's a super app.

00:05:10.680 It's an app for everything.

00:05:12.200 It's Facebook plus Amazon plus PayPal all in one.

00:05:15.480 And like all Chinese apps, it is fully compliant with the demands of the Chinese government.

00:05:21.360 As in, they use it for mass surveillance.

00:05:25.200 Everything you write.

00:05:27.080 Everything you read.

00:05:29.080 Every dollar or yuan you spend.

00:05:31.960 Everywhere you go because of the GPS.

00:05:35.460 Every friend you have or don't have.

00:05:37.460 Every photo and video you take.

00:05:39.760 And who knows?

00:05:40.880 Maybe photos and videos when you don't take them.

00:05:43.640 But when the app takes them, everything goes to the Chinese government.

00:05:47.880 I mean, really, there's no need to plant a listening device in a room to bug a room anymore like they did in the Cold War.

00:05:56.620 Because we all carry around with us listening devices on our own person now.

00:06:01.440 Everywhere with us.

00:06:02.580 Our cell phones, even into the bedroom, wherever.

00:06:05.520 Throw in facial recognition software.

00:06:09.380 And it's an everything system.

00:06:11.200 It's a panopticon.

00:06:12.920 Watching everything all the time.

00:06:14.500 And unlike you, it never forgets.

00:06:17.880 It never forgets who you met with, what you read, what you said a year or five years ago.

00:06:22.680 It has a perfect memory of everything you ever did.

00:06:25.740 Everything you ever went to.

00:06:27.300 In that way, it actually knows more than you know about yourself.

00:06:32.180 I'm going to show you something very scary in a moment.

00:06:34.380 Something new.

00:06:35.580 But let me show you something not so new first.

00:06:38.840 Like this.

00:06:39.740 Remember this?

00:06:40.800 This is an announcement on a Chinese bullet train.

00:06:43.340 I've been on one of those.

00:06:44.620 They're amazing.

00:06:45.140 300-plus kilometers an hour zipping around.

00:06:48.540 Listen to this.

00:06:50.940 Dear passengers,

00:06:52.060 People who travel without tickets or behave disorderly or smoking public areas

00:06:58.700 will be punished according to regulations.

00:07:01.960 And the behavior will be recorded in the individual credit information system.

00:07:06.980 To avoid any negative record of personal credit,

00:07:10.800 please follow the relevant regulations and help with the orders on the train and at the station.

00:07:17.100 Recorded in your individual credit file.

00:07:22.500 Not like a credit card.

00:07:23.780 Not money credit.

00:07:25.160 Your personal political credit.

00:07:28.360 That's what they call your secret police file.

00:07:30.020 Because it doesn't say,

00:07:31.080 it doesn't sound as bad as secret police file.

00:07:33.700 Your government file.

00:07:34.720 Your personal credit file.

00:07:36.940 Everything's in there.

00:07:38.140 China isn't hiding this.

00:07:40.380 They're bragging about it.

00:07:41.900 They're working with Western tech companies, especially Google, to master it.

00:07:47.240 Here's a Chinese publication called Global Times,

00:07:50.600 specifically pushing Chinese government messages to the Western world in English.

00:07:55.520 So they're not shy about this.

00:07:57.100 Look at this.

00:07:58.420 China restricted 2.56 million discredited entities

00:08:03.900 from purchasing plane tickets

00:08:06.580 and 90,000 entities from buying high-speed rail tickets in July.

00:08:12.540 Social credit.

00:08:13.980 Discredited entities.

00:08:16.460 That's what they call people who have been unpersoned.

00:08:20.820 2.56 million people were blocked in one month from flying.

00:08:26.520 That's 100,000 people a day almost.

00:08:29.560 This thing is in widespread use.

00:08:31.720 Here's a story from last month in the Daily Mail.

00:08:37.440 Chinese citizens must pass a facial recognition test 1.00

00:08:40.480 to use the internet as part of Beijing's social credit system.

00:08:44.640 Citizens in China must have their faces scanned 1.00

00:08:46.720 to have the internet installed.

00:08:48.940 The rule is part of China's social credit system,

00:08:50.900 which will take effect on December 1st.

00:08:52.480 That's yesterday.

00:08:54.060 Authority claimed the move could help improve the nation's internet security.

00:08:58.440 China has been building the world's most powerful facial recognition system.

00:09:03.160 The nation is due to be equipped with 626 million closed-circuit TV cameras by 2020.

00:09:08.440 That's next year.

00:09:09.800 I'm going to read some more.

00:09:10.820 Let me just tell you all these facts.

00:09:14.440 China has stepped up its internet censorship

00:09:16.160 by demanding its citizens pass a facial recognition test

00:09:19.700 to be able to use web services.

00:09:22.200 People who want to have the internet installed at home or on their phones

00:09:24.920 must have their faces scanned by the Chinese authority

00:09:27.920 to prove their identities, according to a new regulation.

00:09:31.420 The rule, which will take effect on December 1st,

00:09:33.760 is said to be part of the social credit system,

00:09:35.620 which rates the Chinese citizens based on their daily behavior.

00:09:39.660 At present, a Chinese citizen will need to show his or her ID card

00:09:43.420 while applying for a landline or the internet.

00:09:46.700 The facial recognition test is set to verify that the ID card belongs to the applicant.

00:09:50.840 The directive was issued by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

00:09:55.560 late last month.

00:09:57.700 The ministry claimed the move would help improve the country's internet security

00:10:01.120 and combat terrorism.

00:10:03.300 Chinese citizens are also banned from reselling their SIM cards

00:10:07.240 by the regulation to prevent unregistered users from making calls from mobile phones.

00:10:12.220 So, yeah.

00:10:14.040 Who's excited about getting Huawei, China's main telecom company,

00:10:18.200 to set up our telecom systems here in North America or in Europe

00:10:22.740 for what's called 5G super-broadband?

00:10:26.020 Who would literally hand over our entire computer and phone systems

00:10:30.680 and everything else that's hooked up to the internet these days,

00:10:33.600 from your printer to your refrigerator to your car

00:10:36.820 to airplanes to our defense department?

00:10:40.780 Imagine letting China install telecom infrastructure in your country.

00:10:45.180 Which brings me to the video I want to show you today.

00:10:49.500 This was recorded before the new facial recognition law took effect yesterday.

00:10:55.260 So this is how things were before.

00:10:58.160 Imagine it now.

00:11:00.100 Let me play it for you.

00:11:01.260 Read the captions underneath.

00:11:03.360 And look at that bizarre chair.

00:11:06.160 Chair I'm about to show you reminds me of something out of Clockwork Orange or 1984,

00:11:11.240 but it's real.

00:11:12.500 Take a look.

00:11:13.040 What's the name?

00:11:21.540 My name is附 Reno.

00:11:23.620 What is he?

00:11:24.080 Why is he here?

00:11:25.620 I know, I know.

00:11:26.340 I'm sorry.

00:11:27.200 What is he?

00:11:28.880 I'm� a Ngordia.

00:11:29.500 I'm drunk, and I'm very scared.

00:11:30.760 You're done there for what's làm.

00:11:32.620 I'm out there for lunch, era for lunch, just the house.

00:11:36.620 You're out there for pesky if he was so professional?

00:11:37.200 Oh.

00:11:38.660 Why is he going to give you guidelines?

00:11:39.360 Why are you looking at the WhatsApp?

00:11:40.960 We'll talk about some警察?

00:11:42.020 On what happened?

00:11:44.520 昨天

00:11:46.740 9pm

00:11:48.500 On one February!

00:11:50.380 On one February!

00:11:52.580 One February!

00:11:58.240 One July August 2018

00:12:10.760 Do you think it's an actor politician or housing?

00:12:16.480 Can you think it's not true right?

00:12:21.320 How do you speak it?

00:12:25.220 To finance the Classroom at Dealers?

00:12:30.700 Img rechts江XL 0.86

00:12:36.680 No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:13:06.680 That's a torture device. That's not just a chair. Did you see his hands like that? And his feet, too?

00:13:30.400 Why did you complain about police on WeChat? Why did you talk about the traffic police? Why did you talk about them confiscating motorcycles?

00:13:37.600 What's wrong with that? Why did you badmouth the police? Do you hate the police? Say you like them. Say it!

00:13:43.060 What? What's your intention? Was it a joke? I know I'm wrong. I know I'm wrong. I definitely didn't mean it. Any words for the police?

00:13:51.020 Uncle police. I'm so sorry. Uncle police. I know that now. Please forgive me. I won't do it again ever.

00:13:56.460 There are questions about his name. What he did. They already knew all of that, of course. They had it already. This was about destroying his will.

00:14:08.120 Destroying his mind. His intentions. This was about breaking him. And the video. Well, that's a warning to others.

00:14:15.480 But, hey, guys, don't worry about it. That kind of social media re-education by police, that's at least, what, five years away from here?

00:14:29.760 Okay, nothing for us to worry about. Stay with us for more.

00:14:45.480 Welcome back. Well, this is a very serious matter and one I don't think has had enough attention in the West.

00:14:53.020 But we have an expert who we call on every time we need to decrypt what's going on in China.

00:14:59.800 And he's written an essay just a couple days ago in the Gatestone Institute called China Adopts Malicious Cyber Security Rules.

00:15:09.580 And you know who I'm talking about. It's our old friend, Gordon G. Chang, who joins us now via Skype.

00:15:15.580 Gordon, great to see you again. I always encourage our followers to follow you on Twitter at Gordon G. Chang.

00:15:22.640 Tell me what's going on with the new rules passed yesterday and the ones that will take effect on January 1st.

00:15:30.320 Yeah, these two measures, December 1, which is the implementation of the Multi-Level Protection Scheme 2.0.

00:15:37.320 And on January 2, the cryptography law goes into effect.

00:15:42.620 These two measures will make all the data, communications, informations that foreign companies store on their China networks available to Chinese authorities.

00:15:53.220 So there will be no more encryption permitted, at least encryption that is from the Chinese government and the Communist Party.

00:16:01.380 And this really means that China will be able to take this information and, for instance, give it to state enterprises that compete against foreign companies.

00:16:11.180 It also means that foreign companies may lose around the world their trade secret protections for information that they store on their China networks.

00:16:19.760 And China will use this to ruin these companies, just like it ruined Nortel networks, which is now bankrupted. 0.81

00:16:27.940 So this is a matter where China is in a position, really, to take over foreign companies, not just in China, but elsewhere around the world.

00:16:36.600 So how would that impact a high-tech company?

00:16:40.960 I'm just going to pick an example.

00:16:42.900 Let's just say, I don't know, Apple computers.

00:16:46.720 How would Apple or Apple users or Apple designers be at risk?

00:16:54.000 How would China use these laws to get access to things?

00:16:58.560 I'm just using that as an example.

00:16:59.880 Yeah, well, Apple would have to turn over encryption keys to the Chinese government, which means everything on their networks in China is visible to the Chinese government.

00:17:10.140 And by the way, this is not a situation where Apple, after a request or a demand, would turn over information to Beijing.

00:17:18.500 This Beijing would be able to take it on its own because there is no encryption with regard to the Chinese government.

00:17:25.820 So this means just everything is there.

00:17:28.660 And it also means, Ezra, because the Chinese are in the networks of Apple, they probably are in a better position to rummage around Apple's networks outside China.

00:17:39.800 So, you know, you shouldn't be surprised within, you know, a decade that Apple is owned by China. 0.60

00:17:45.480 This is serious because, you know, we saw this with Nortel.

00:17:49.980 This is not some sort of theoretical concern.

00:17:52.600 This has already happened to a major multinational.

00:17:55.420 Yeah, Nortel used to be the Canadian high-tech champion until it was undone in exactly the manner you suggest.

00:18:03.420 Now, in the past, companies like Apple have fought against the U.S. government trying to get backdoor access to their encryption.

00:18:12.520 And I respect that.

00:18:13.940 They've even done so in cases involving terrorism, which shows their dedication.

00:18:18.560 I haven't seen an outcry from Silicon Valley about Chinese decryption efforts.

00:18:25.920 Have I just missed it?

00:18:27.120 Or how has Silicon Valley reacted?

00:18:30.560 Well, you know, China is a lot more coercive than the United States.

00:18:36.840 And so they realize that there's no point in trying to publicly oppose Beijing's efforts.

00:18:42.520 And so they don't.

00:18:44.380 You know, they're trading information for access.

00:18:47.220 Companies have done this for quite some time, not very many of them successful.

00:18:51.880 And that's why there is this difference of approach that companies take to Beijing as opposed to the approach they take to Washington.

00:19:00.560 And this is despicable.

00:19:03.080 This is horrible.

00:19:03.960 But it's in the context of business understandable.

00:19:07.740 And it's up to, you know, countries like Canada and the United States to change the incentives for those companies so that they are not subject to pressure by Beijing, which unfortunately means not only reducing their vulnerability to China, but getting them out of China.

00:19:23.800 And this is terrible, Ezra.

00:19:26.660 But remember, Ottawa, Washington, you know, London, we're not driving this.

00:19:32.720 It's Beijing that's driving this.

00:19:34.820 Well, one thing that's concerned me, it's the one-year anniversary of when the daughter of the founder of Huawei, who's also the CFO, was arrested transiting through Vancouver.

00:19:48.920 So she's been under house arrest.

00:19:50.540 It's been the one-year anniversary.

00:19:51.760 This was the spark of a degradation of relations between China and Canada.

00:19:58.000 But since the last federal election up here, Gordon, I see that Canada is becoming softer towards China.

00:20:05.460 The new foreign minister, very pro-China, has even appeared on Chinese state TV saying China is a model of security and stability.

00:20:14.760 We see a number of foreign policy statements about we need a new framework with China.

00:20:22.140 We want to patch things up.

00:20:23.740 I'm worried that Canada is collapsing towards China.

00:20:28.380 And in particular, I see that Huawei is on a PR offensive in Canada.

00:20:33.400 In fact, Canada has allowed Huawei to build networks in the northern Arctic, which I would think is a strategic military and industrial network.

00:20:45.580 Let me ask you this, Huawei, if we allow Huawei to build telecom infrastructure in Canada, could that be used under these Chinese laws to suck out data and information and secrets, just letting the hardware be put in place in Canada?

00:21:03.680 Yeah, Beijing would be certainly in a position to do that, not under the December 1 and January 1 measures, which only apply to networks in China.

00:21:14.540 But China, with Huawei in the backbone of Canada's telecommunications networks, clearly would be able to do exactly what you say, which is why the United States is in the process of removing Huawei from the American backbone.

00:21:30.720 This is important because Canada is a Five Eyes partner.

00:21:35.380 But if it has Huawei 5G networks, I don't think the United States should be cooperating with Canada.

00:21:41.580 And this whole drift that you're talking about of Canada becoming a Chinese colony is really most worrisome. 0.89

00:21:49.260 You know, Susan Rice, Barack Obama's former national security advisor, came up to Canada and warned Canada about doing business with Huawei.

00:21:58.260 I thought that was remarkable, considering, you know, the source.

00:22:02.720 I mean, she's no friend of Donald Trump.

00:22:05.280 And for her to take the American line in Canada was quite interesting.

00:22:09.520 Let me shift gears a little bit.

00:22:10.840 I follow you very closely on Twitter because you're the master of what's going on these days with China and Hong Kong.

00:22:20.300 Can you give us your assessment of the last month in Hong Kong leading up to the election?

00:22:27.900 We had our reporter, Kian Bexty, there, and he found it eye-opening and wondrous, but terrifying, too.

00:22:34.340 What's your take on the election, its results, and what Beijing is going to do next?

00:22:39.800 Well, Beijing just a few hours ago told the U.S. Navy it could no longer have Hong Kong port calls.

00:22:46.680 And this, to me, showed the weakness of China, because China wasn't sanctioning the United States.

00:22:53.700 It was sanctioning itself.

00:22:55.580 Those port calls are important to the economy of Hong Kong.

00:22:58.860 When a carrier strike group pulls into Hong Kong waters, that's $5 million for the Hong Kong economy, you know, within those three or four days.

00:23:08.140 So, really, right now you see Beijing pulling a temper tantrum, but not being able to actually do something effective against the United States.

00:23:16.980 And we see, you know, just in general, Beijing, after the district council elections of two Sundays ago, you know, basically doesn't know what to do.

00:23:26.760 They were actually thinking that their pro-Beijing candidates would pick up seats in those district council elections, where, you know, the pro-Beijing camp got annihilated.

00:23:37.620 They had control of all 18 district councils before the election.

00:23:41.660 Now they've only got control of one, and the only reason why they have the control of that one is because it's dominated by government-appointed members.

00:23:50.480 So, you know, China right now is just struggling in terms of trying to figure out what to do in Hong Kong.

00:23:55.740 Well, that's fascinating, because, you know, in repressive or authoritarian or one-party regimes, no one likes to tell the emperor about his new clothes.

00:24:07.460 No one wants to be the dissenter.

00:24:08.920 I just watched the miniseries on Chernobyl, and what struck me, I mean, I know it was a dramatization, but I think they nailed it, in a Soviet-style system, no one wants to tell the boss he's wrong.

00:24:21.100 So I can only imagine, despite them being able to watch the free press in Hong Kong, they preferred to believe their, you know, their own PR, their own spies who said,

00:24:34.540 Oh, we're, you know, President Xi, you're beloved in Hong Kong, this is just American meddling.

00:24:40.900 I was shocked that China got it so wrong.

00:24:44.080 Are they really that disconnected from reality?

00:24:46.780 You know, I was, I was really surprised by how out of touch the senior leadership in Beijing is, because, you know, you're exactly right.

00:24:58.140 The lower level Chinese officials knew, I'm sure, exactly what was going to happen.

00:25:02.980 Everybody knew the polling before the election.

00:25:05.980 There was going to be a sweep.

00:25:07.280 And for senior Chinese leaders not to know that shows the fundamental failure of their system, that there's that disconnect.

00:25:16.480 And it's for the reason you say, that everyone is afraid of Xi Jinping.

00:25:20.680 This is a authoritarian system becoming totalitarian very fast.

00:25:26.140 Let me ask you one last question.

00:25:27.700 In the, in the few days before the elections, there was sort of a siege of Pauly University.

00:25:35.360 Some students were holed up there and some pretty heavily armed police outside.

00:25:39.180 And some of the students were using bows and arrows.

00:25:42.520 And they were using some little high-tech MacGyver gizmos, no, no real firearms.

00:25:48.500 And, you know, part of me thought, well, look at their ingenuity.

00:25:52.080 But most of me thought, oh, my God, bows and arrows, they're going to be annihilated if this goes Tiananmen Square style.

00:26:00.480 And I actually was, was extremely sad to see that's all they got.

00:26:05.600 I mean, that's dramatic, but that's, that's a, you know, that's a desperate last stand.

00:26:10.140 Well, those guys won, the pro-democracy students won.

00:26:13.260 But if Beijing rolls in the tanks, bows and arrows aren't going to work.

00:26:19.420 Are you still afraid that Beijing could play the Tiananmen Square brutal force card like they did against the democracy movement that fateful day in Tiananmen Square?

00:26:29.820 Well, it's possible that they do it.

00:26:32.260 But I think that from a military point of view, it would be a disaster for China.

00:26:38.580 There would be casualties, but there'd be casualties on both sides.

00:26:42.060 Because we know from all we've seen over the last five months that those kids are willing to die.

00:26:49.840 They're good fighters.

00:26:51.400 For the most part, they have outfoxed the police.

00:26:54.860 Their only tactical defeat was at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, as you point out.

00:26:59.640 But it was actually a political success because it convinced the U.S. Congress to vote for those two pieces of legislation that President Trump signed on Wednesday.

00:27:08.500 And, you know, if the Chinese formally deploy their troops or their police on Hong Kong streets, those kids are going to rain down explosives and petrol bombs on Chinese troops.

00:27:20.320 They're going to disappear into apartment buildings.

00:27:22.560 This is, remember, a guerrilla force that is supported by almost 90 percent of the population of Hong Kong.

00:27:30.140 And if the Chinese invade, that 90 percent is going to be 95, 96, 97 percent support of the people, which really means that it's extremely difficult to beat a guerrilla force that is supported by the people.

00:27:44.020 We Americans should know that.

00:27:45.360 It's called Vietnam. 0.61

00:27:46.860 I hope the Chinese understand what's going on, because if they were to formally deploy, they'd be bringing back a lot of their troops and body bags.

00:27:54.840 Wow. Well, God forbid it comes to that.

00:27:57.940 We're just so proud of the Hong Kong democracy activists.

00:28:02.520 I truly think they're an example for the world of people standing up for principles that I think used to be called Western liberal values.

00:28:12.100 But now Hong Kong is much of a claim to those values as anyone else in the world.

00:28:15.980 I think they're the leaders in it.

00:28:17.160 And, Gordon, I thank you for being such an attentive observer and pundit on these matters.

00:28:24.580 We rely on you so much, and we're always grateful for your time on TV.

00:28:29.380 Well, thank you so much, Ezra.

00:28:31.040 You know, it's really great what you're doing, and especially with those very troublesome developments in Ottawa.

00:28:36.560 You know, your voice is so critical at this moment.

00:28:39.560 Well, it's nice of you to say we'll keep at it.

00:28:41.160 And, folks, I want to say again, if you're not following Gordon on Twitter, he's a must-follow.

00:28:46.540 You can do that at Gordon G. Chang, and we'll put his Twitter handle on the screen.

00:28:52.240 Take care, my friend.

00:28:53.340 Keep up the fight.

00:28:54.960 Thanks, Ezra.

00:28:55.740 Right on.

00:28:56.240 There you have it, Gordon G. Chang.

00:28:57.560 Stay with us.

00:28:58.200 More ahead on The Rebel.

00:28:59.060 Hey, welcome back.

00:29:09.420 On my monologue, Friday, about German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying that society must oppose freedom in order to remain free,

00:29:15.920 Wayne writes,

00:29:17.380 Merkel has no children.

00:29:18.340 She cares little about what her country will look like when she dies.

00:29:22.640 Yeah, and she's frustrated that the country's turning against her. 1.00

00:29:26.740 I mean, obviously, she's still Chancellor, so not that much yet.

00:29:30.620 But I think she's angrier and angrier with people not obeying her.

00:29:36.560 You know, she's shouting, but people aren't listening, so maybe she'll ban people from disagreeing with her. 0.90

00:29:42.360 She's authoritarian.

00:29:44.240 Remember, her dad moved from West Germany to East Germany during the Cold War.

00:29:49.620 I've never heard of that.

00:29:50.620 Moving from West Germany to East Germany during the Cold War, deliberately moving to an unfree country. 0.74

00:29:58.940 That's who she comes from.

00:30:01.360 Paul writes,

00:30:02.720 I'm not sure which is more terrifying.

00:30:04.140 Merkel saying it with the people clapping.

00:30:07.140 Turkey's voting for Christmas.

00:30:08.480 Utterly unbelievable.

00:30:10.140 Yeah, unbelievable.

00:30:10.880 I have to say, the pounding, the pounding in the arm and the pounding and the shouting in German,

00:30:16.940 it was just too mnemonic for me.

00:30:20.640 On my interview with Tarek Fata, Sam writes,

00:30:23.180 Tarek reminds me of Yoda, such a wise man.

00:30:27.340 Yoda, yeah, that's a good one.

00:30:29.200 I can sort of see it, too.

00:30:30.880 No, I'm kidding about it.

00:30:31.580 He's very hot.

00:30:32.200 He's very cuddly, like Yoda.

00:30:34.120 No, he's a smart guy.

00:30:35.020 We love having him on.

00:30:35.860 And sometimes I've just got to slow down because he says a lot of things I have to catch up and process.

00:30:41.660 But I love him.

00:30:42.800 He's always welcome on the rebel.

00:30:44.020 I'll tell you that.

00:30:45.520 Bernard writes,

00:30:47.380 Why don't you send Kian to Halifax, St. John and St. John's, 1.00

00:30:51.000 to find out why Maritimers, half of whom work out West, keep voting liberal?

00:30:55.280 Call it the strange case of the liberal grip in the Maritimes.

00:30:59.600 Yeah, I think we'll need more than just a quick visit from Kian to unriddle that mystery. 1.00

00:31:04.620 But, yeah, I don't quite get it.

00:31:08.180 But, hey, I live in red area code 416 Toronto, and it is a lock for the liberals all the way down.

00:31:16.840 So I don't understand my neighbors either, I guess.

00:31:20.560 It's a puzzle.

00:31:21.800 It's a puzzle to me.

00:31:24.580 I don't know.

00:31:26.100 I see there's a bit of a civil war within the Conservative Party.

00:31:30.500 Harper's people versus Shear's people.

00:31:31.960 I think it does come down to the question, who can beat Trudeau next time?

00:31:38.200 I don't know if she was the answer to that.

00:31:39.880 I'm interested in your thoughts on that.

00:31:42.000 All right, that's our show for today.

00:31:43.100 What do you think about that creepy, creepy video from China?

00:31:46.780 I found that deeply disturbing.

00:31:50.360 And yet we're going to put Huawei in our own country.

00:31:52.500 I don't get it.

00:31:53.660 Until tomorrow, folks.

00:31:54.860 On behalf of all of us here at Rebel World, Hank Wars, to you at home.

00:31:57.340 Good night.

00:31:57.640 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:31:59.240 And keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - December 03, 2019

China's social media mass surveillance police state already a global affair

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