Today, China rolls out its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian. It s a tremendous vessel, 80,000 tons, almost as big as the biggest U.S. aircraft carriers. We'll take a look at it, look at the pictures, and video, and we'll talk to our friend Gordon Chang about it.
00:04:21.500Just watch for a couple minutes if you don't know what I'm talking about.
00:04:23.620Plane. They use a steam cannon that actually fires the plane off the end of the aircraft carrier.
00:04:29.620And that really is sort of taking the idea into its final and most modern form.
00:04:34.180It gives us the capability to accelerate aircraft weighing 55,000 pounds from zero to 165 knots over a 300-foot distance in less than two and a half seconds.
00:04:48.820The principles explored by Tesibius save military lives every day.
00:04:57.120This is where the aircraft gets secured to the shuttle, which is attached to the rest of the catapult.
00:05:02.160Within the launching engine are power cylinders that run the full length of the catapult.
00:05:06.480Within the cylinders are pistons that are linked to the shuttle, which are next to the aircraft.
00:05:11.660When you're ready to fire the catapult, it's a programmed opening of the launch valve, which emits steam into the cylinders, pushes the pistons forward.
00:05:21.360When it gets to the end of the power stroke, the aircraft is permitted to continue flying.
00:12:24.800There were battles there in the Second World War.
00:12:27.340Well, now China wants it, and you doubt they'll get it.
00:12:32.420China has major colonization projects throughout Africa, in particular.
00:12:36.300Chinese workers, Chinese property, Chinese infrastructure, Chinese mines, Chinese dams, Chinese ports, Chinese police patrolling these, Chinese profits.
00:12:49.280It wants a navy to protect those interests and project force there.
00:12:53.060It already has the largest navy in the world numerically.
00:12:55.660Now it's working to grow its qualitative advantage.
00:12:58.120And look, even if the Fujian aircraft carrier isn't quite ready to tackle the USS Gerald Ford, that's the new U.S. aircraft carrier class that's just entering service.
00:13:10.840These are images of the USS Gerald Ford undergoing sea trials, practicing, practicing.
00:13:16.760But look, even if the Fujian can't quite take on the Yanks, you can bet they can take on, I don't know, any African country that doesn't like to be recolonized and is pushing back on China, or any little island in the Pacific, or even tackle Korea or Japan in a significant way.
00:13:35.200I wouldn't bet against those countries just yet.
00:13:37.300But China is their rival now, bigger than them, richer than them, and soon enough, stronger than them.
00:13:42.860I laugh at the demonization of Russia in wired society, the virtue signaling, the empty gestures, not because I support Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I don't, but because it's so obviously ineffective, all this virtue signaling.
00:13:56.220Russia is selling more oil than ever at a higher price than ever.
00:13:59.300The ruble is more valuable than when the war started.
00:14:09.440Russian soldiers have died, and I don't think it's going how Putin planned, but they haven't really been stopped, have they?
00:14:17.080And I don't think they will be until they decide to stop.
00:14:20.180And if that's what Russia can do, Russia, well, what could China do with literally 10 times the population and 10 times the GDP?
00:14:28.660I mean, for all the photo ops and everyone putting a Ukraine flag as their Facebook photo, we haven't actually put true sanctions on Russia because that would hurt the West and just drive Russia into the arms of China and India and others.
00:14:41.840And they would get the oil and the West wouldn't.
00:15:58.700I'm worried about this new aircraft carrier in China.
00:16:01.420I mean, I'm not worried today, but maybe in two years, for sure in five years, when it's likely joined by a sister ship.
00:16:07.600And when China has decided that it can take out Taiwan faster than the U.S. can send help and that the U.S. really wouldn't have the moral stamina to cut itself off from China, its goods and services, TikTok, Apple computers, everything made there.
00:17:20.280Aircraft carrier today, but the People's Liberation Army Navy of China, and although it is two years away from being operational, it is a mighty aircraft carrier, 80,000 tons, almost as big as the newest American class.
00:17:34.680It has that electromagnetic catapult, which is the latest technology that even, say, the U.K. aircraft carriers don't have.
00:18:31.740Some people speculate it's a little bit bigger than what they announced, so it could be in the 100,000 ton class.
00:18:38.800And as you point out, it's got some pretty modern things, features to it, including that electromagnetic catapult system, which is now appearing on the Ford class and which, you know, we have yet to get to work well.
00:18:54.980The question is, where did they get that?
00:18:57.020They probably stole it, and this is up to the shame of the U.S. Navy for not protecting its technology.
00:19:04.860But clearly, Beijing is going to use this for nefarious purposes because it does not believe that it is bound by the rules of the international system.
00:19:14.740It takes a while for an aircraft carrier to work.
00:19:16.640I mean, imagine how complex it is running a capital ship like that is complex enough than running the air wing on it and having them integrate that.
00:19:25.960The U.S. has decades, really almost a century of experience in that.
00:19:31.640I think China has to learn that from scratch, but I don't see why they wouldn't.
00:19:36.080I mean, they've been practicing on their previous aircraft carriers, the one they bought from Russia called the Leoniang, if I'm pronouncing that right.
00:19:45.680Pardon me if I'm not, and then the Shandong.
00:19:47.600So I think they're taking the long view.
00:19:50.260They know they've got to learn these things and practice.
00:19:53.180But even if this thing isn't ready for a couple more years, I think it's obvious they're willing to make the long-term, multi-billion-dollar investments to get there.
00:20:04.260Like, this is as serious as the space program in terms of a high-cost, long-term investment.
00:20:10.900You can't just snap your fingers and get an aircraft carrier.
00:20:13.940You've got to plan that 10, 20 years out.
00:20:16.000It looks like China's willing to do that.
00:20:19.380And you point out the most important thing about this news, and that is the trajectory of China's Navy.
00:20:26.400They're building capital ships, submarines, and others at a very fast clip.
00:20:31.260Their Navy is bigger than ours, if you count bottoms.
00:20:35.560We're still, the United States still has more tonnage.
00:20:38.140But nonetheless, this is getting to a point where the Chinese have a formidable force.
00:20:44.600And when it comes to, for instance, a war over Taiwan, China will have more assets in the region than we can actually muster.
00:20:52.100So this shows that China has that determination to take Taiwan by force and also to move against other neighbors, especially Japan and the Philippines.
00:21:02.720You know, I don't know if China would try to invade Japan or Korea.
00:21:21.620I think if you plunked a couple of Chinese aircraft carriers between mainland China and Taiwan, I think the Chinese amphibious – I mean, I don't want to get too technical.
00:21:33.500I don't want to pretend that I have a military background.
00:21:35.300But it just strikes me as sort of obvious if you deployed the bulk of the Chinese navy between mainland China and Taiwan, China would pretty much have its way.
00:21:46.620And how – I mean, I'm just terrified that the qualitative and quantitative advantages are being lost.
00:21:53.500Yeah, well, certainly, they're being lost.
00:21:57.640And by the way, for an invasion of Taiwan to be successful, China's got to establish a blockade.
00:22:04.260That blockade to be successful has got to include sovereign Japanese territory, specifically Yonagumi, an island which is actually south of Taipei, 58 nautical miles from the main island of Taiwan.
00:22:17.040On a clear day, actually, you can see the Taiwan mountains from Yonagumi.
00:22:23.040But also there's the islets in the East China Sea that the Japanese call the Senkakus, the Chinese call the Daoyus.
00:22:30.600The Chinese have a very weak claim to them, but they've made it very clear that they're going to take those from Japan.
00:22:36.700So this carrier plus the other ones plus the rest of its navy would be very helpful in taking the Senkakus, the Daoyus, from Japan.
00:22:46.180You know, I was saying earlier, I look at the West reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and I was checking in Russia's GDP is almost exactly one tenth that of China's and the population is almost exactly one tenth that of China's.
00:23:02.900And Russia has oil and natural gas and other minerals.
00:23:06.760But most of the stuff we love to buy doesn't come from Russia.
00:23:10.440I can't think of anything I buy that comes from Russia, whereas it's very few things that we don't buy from China, whether it's medicine or high tech, anything high tech.
00:23:22.140And so I look at how difficult it's been to punish Russia economically.
00:23:30.520They are not having trouble selling their oil at record prices.
00:23:34.500I mean, yes, they have had military losses, but I think that the West, especially Europe, has been unwilling to pay an economic price for disentangling with Russia.
00:23:44.680I think of that, and I think that is one tenth of China's integration with the world.
00:23:52.620And forget about the military hardware.
00:23:55.300I don't know if the West has the stomach, the moral conviction to get into a showdown with China.
00:24:02.200I think the West would blink in a second.
00:24:04.060I'm really afraid that you're right, because as we've seen, the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia have been less than inspiring.
00:24:15.340They've been somewhat effective, but China has been able to help Russia to evade them.
00:24:22.140And the Russians have been very good at being able to sell oil and gas around the world to a number of countries, including the United States and the European Union.
00:24:31.900So, you know, China looks at this, and there's two big lessons that China takes away from all of this.
00:24:38.600You know, there's a lot of wishful thinking, and, you know, people say, oh, you know, China's seen the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people and worry that Taiwanese would be heroic.
00:24:48.580Well, yes, the Taiwanese would be heroic, but that's not the lesson that I think Beijing takes away.
00:24:54.880One of them is about the sanctions not being effective, and I think you're right.
00:24:59.380They believe that no one's going to impose sanctions on China.
00:25:02.020And the second lesson goes to your first point, and that is that the United States, the European Union, 27 nations, and Great Britain, those 29 nations had an economy that it was 25.1 times larger than Russia's in 2021, and yet we failed to deter that invasion, which most people thought was unthinkable.
00:25:24.060The Chinese look at that and say, well, if the much stronger West couldn't stop Russia, how are they going to stop us?
00:25:31.820And so, therefore, there's been a breakdown in deterrence.
00:25:34.920Now, I've had people say China will get old before it gets rich, a reference to their aging demographics and their low fertility rate, partly because of the historic one-child policy.
00:25:49.600Well, they seem to be getting rich pretty fast.
00:25:56.160Is there, you know, sometimes when people get some wealth, they start to demand more rights and freedoms, whereas if they're absolutely in abject poverty, they're just thinking, how do I eat today?
00:26:12.980Is there some political, I mean, there was the Falun Gong movement more than a decade ago that was snuffed out.
00:26:20.460Is there any countervailing force that Xi Jinping is worried about other than just regular political rivalry?
00:26:27.360Is there something internally in China that perhaps makes them not as strong as they appear on the outside?
00:26:33.420That's a great question, because the answer is yes.
00:26:37.020We know that the Chinese regime these days is extremely casualty averse.
00:26:41.780We know this because China launched a surprise attack against India on June 2020.
00:26:49.020They did not announce their casualties until the following February, when they said they had four.
00:26:55.700But both Russian and Indian sources publicly have said that China undercounted its casualties by a factor of 11.
00:27:05.560That shows you the regime in Beijing is very worried about military misadventure abroad because they realize that Chinese people, for various reasons right now, are just in no mood for aggression against anybody.
00:27:20.600And that, I think, is largely because they've got an economy right now that is, if it's not collapsing, it's certainly plunging, it's contracting.
00:27:29.980It's a property market that is falling down with no bottom in sight.
00:27:35.540And that's important because property, basically new apartments, are like currency in China, store of value.
00:27:41.980So you have a lot of problems going on.
00:27:44.940And the one that you mentioned, demography.
00:27:47.100China's demography is projected to fall faster than any other country in history in the absence of war or disease.
00:27:55.000So Chinese leaders see this and they believe that they've got some real problems.
00:27:59.660But it also means they may believe they've got a closing window of opportunity.
00:28:03.700In other words, act fast or don't act at all.
00:28:07.220I mean, Vladimir Putin, he may be unpopular outside his country, but there's some indication that within Russia, the war has caused people to rally to him out of patriotism or who knows.
00:28:20.700Maybe they've bought their propaganda.
00:28:22.100But I don't think it's bringing him down internally.
00:28:26.820I remember a few decades ago, there was a book in Japan, if I recall, called The Japan That Can Say No.
00:28:32.380And it was sort of, you know, let's stop being second banana of the United States.
00:28:37.680Part of it was sort of ethnic pride, national pride.
00:28:41.320How I don't know if it's possible to read Chinese public opinion.
00:28:45.620I don't know if that thing exists in the same way we think of it in the West.
00:28:48.520But an average person in China, do they love America or do they want to go to America or do they hate America as a new imperialist force, a bully?
00:28:58.480Do they have an affection for the place where Hollywood and Disney and sports comes from?
00:29:03.540What do they think of the average American?
00:29:06.080Well, there's 1.41 billion Chinese, according to the last census.
00:29:09.920So there's probably 1.41 billion answers to that.
00:29:13.620I think that, first of all, you can't measure public opinion on sensitive issues in China.
00:29:23.980But I think most Chinese admire the U.S.
00:29:27.880The problems with the U.S. have been magnified by Communist Party and central government propaganda.
00:29:34.800So there's been a diminution in support.
00:29:37.720And, of course, there always is national pride.
00:29:40.020But I think the Chinese people aren't so focused on the outside world these days as they're focused on their own government.
00:29:48.160Because the problems in China, COVID-19 lockdowns, economy, all the rest of it, really have focused them on the issues that affect them on an immediate basis.
00:29:59.860Well, I tell you, it sure was a wake-up call to see that mighty aircraft carrier.
00:30:03.260It looks like it could be an American ship.
00:30:05.960It's so mighty, and it's got that flat top, but not that ski jump top like some of the smaller aircraft carriers.
00:30:13.180Gordon, it's great to catch up with you folks.
00:30:14.680I say again, you really have to follow Gordon on Twitter.
00:30:17.440If you care about China and China-America relations and the whole region, go to Gordon G. Chang on Twitter.
00:32:29.900And, I mean, I've been around politics for really 30 years.
00:32:35.420I even worked on Parliament Hill for a couple years for Preston Manning way back in the day.
00:32:40.560And it was absolutely standard practice for journalists to chase people, especially up and down Parliament Hill, and to make sort of a dramatic scene about it.
00:33:21.080You can turn it into a cuddly little puppy.
00:33:23.700You can do that with journalists, too.
00:33:27.040Speaking of dogs, Dr. Dirty Dog 995 says, liberals refusing to answer questions on Bill C-11 shows you exactly what this bill is meant to do.
00:33:37.200And like I say, a lot of journalists used to run and ask questions.
00:33:42.080I remember when Stephen Harper had a bump in the road and Nigel Wright, his chief of staff, he used to get up and go jogging at like 4 a.m.
00:33:51.460A CTV reporter got up that early and sort of jogged alongside him asking questions.
00:33:55.880That's great journalism on their part.
00:33:57.720It's unthinkable that journalists would do that to Trudeau or his cabinet ministers these days because they're all on the tape.
00:34:04.160That's our show for today and for this week.
00:34:06.280Until Monday, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.
00:34:12.580Astute viewers of Rebel News might recall our video last week exposing how Brampton Mayor Sneaky Patrick Brown had a secret campaign office running out of the city of Vaughan.
00:34:25.340What's more, he was allegedly using senior city of Brampton staff to help sell Conservative Party of Canada memberships.
00:34:33.100That's against the rules, of course, unless those staffers took an unpaid leave of absence, and none of the Brampton employees we reached out to would provide proof of this.
00:34:44.440In any event, on the day Lincoln Jay and I visited the secret sneaky Patrick campaign HQ, who should show up but the sneaky one himself?
00:34:54.260As soon as he saw us, he scrammed like a frightened weasel.
00:34:59.340Naturally, we followed Brown down the highway.
00:37:56.140I am writing to follow up on our previous conversation regarding your clients, Mr. Menzies and Mr. Jay.
00:38:02.940We have completed our investigation and determined that there are no grounds to charge your clients with any criminal or provincial offenses.
00:38:12.900In our opinion, your clients exercise their freedom of the press charter right in a lawful manner.
00:38:21.580Should you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out.
00:38:26.820Now, folks, that's my kind of detective, someone who respects freedom of the press.
00:38:32.760Now, for those of you keeping score at home, this is yet another embarrassing defeat for the sneaky one, yet another victory for Rebel News when it comes to exposing Patrick Brown.
00:38:44.280But really, the cops had no other choice to deep six this investigation.
00:38:49.020If Lincoln and yours truly were criminals hellbent on doing Brown harm, why in the world would we follow him into a police station?
00:39:00.040Me thinks that would be a really bad move if we were a couple of actual gangbangers.
00:39:06.800Which makes me wonder, what the hell did Patrick Brown say when he phoned 911?
00:39:12.320Or did he call one of his cop buddies?
00:39:15.600Because if he claimed he was being followed by strangers looking to harm him, well, his own driver kindly provided us with evidence that he knew exactly who we were.
00:39:49.980Wonder if he's looking for a new driver right now, one that subscribes to the old saying, loose lips sink ships.
00:39:57.660But you know, folks, it's getting a little tired watching Brown use the Peel Regional Police as though they were his private security guards.
00:40:08.220Brown used the police to shut down the practice of journalism some two years ago when the cops arrested me for trespassing.
00:40:15.840Saying, yeah, I was standing on the parking lot of a taxpayer-funded community center hoping to ask questions.
00:40:23.980But, oh, King Brown, he's not to be disturbed when he's playing hockey.
00:40:35.040I swear to you that we will go through such a disclosure procedure, and we will have every one of the officers there, and we will answer the question, who made the order to arrest a journalist doing public interest journalism on a public sidewalk?
00:40:52.820I'm not under arrest, so you can't touch me.