This isn’t just about COVID, Glenn says. In fact, the protests currently spreading throughout China are about something much, much more serious: Slavery and control. In this clip, Glenn dives into the real motivation behind the protests. He explains why they’re different from the 1989 ones at Tiananmen Square, and he predicts how these events could play out in our near future…
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I want to start in China. The protests in China, they say this is all about the COVID-19 measures.
It is and it isn't.
It's about slavery. That's what this is really all about. This started you know bubbling here recently.
Then there was a fire. And I don't know if you've seen, but they are bolting people into their houses. You can open the doors. These -- this fire was raging through an apartment complex. Nobody could get out.
Because the state had locked the doors, from the outside. That didn't go over real well. Then, the people at Foxconn heard that there was coming -- another zero COVID lockdown was coming.
Now, these people have been in lockdown for about two years. Two years. So you know, Foxconn is the wonderful place, where they make all of the Apple products.
Oh, Apple should be so proud. They have everything you need, you know in that building. So you sleep on one floor. You eat on another floor. You maybe watch a movie on floor four. And, of course, you do all your work, on floor one.
It's tremendous! You never, ever have to leave the building. Well, people heard that there was another lockdown coming, and they started jumping the fence. Now, because they have social credit systems, where you have to have your i Phone, or your cell phone, and it tracks you, and it gives you either a red or a green. Red means, you have COVID.
But not really. Not really. That's what the state says. But they are changing things to be able to control people. Again, the zero COVID is not about COVID.
It's about control. So they started jumping the fence. But they couldn't get on to a train or a bus. They weren't running. And if they could get on, their little red badge said, you couldn't actually -- so they just started walking. And they started walking on the highway.
The state got very upset. And said, hey. Foxconn, you have to clean this up. And so the Foxconn, which is basically the state. Said, we're going to offer four times the bonus. If everybody would just come and work, just apply. You get four times the bonus.
Oh. Do the people who stayed at Foxconn. Do they get the bonus too?
No. Discontent. Then all these new people were hired. What happened?
Oh, no. There was a misunderstanding. I'm sorry. Is mandarin your first language. Oh, it is?
Well, there was a translation problem. You're not getting four times the bonus. That's when everybody went crazy.
They all jumped the fence. And they left. Now, this is not Tiananmen Square. And this is really important that you understand.
Tiananmen Square, ended in 1989.
This is much larger than that. The number of regions in China, and the number of people that are participating, in 1989, there was no internet.
There was no mobile phone. So compare it to then, today, hundreds of millions of Chinese are aware of what is going on. Most Chinese in 1989, learned about Tiananmen, in the next school year. If they ever heard about it at all. But at the time of the protests, only 2 percent of the Chinese population, even knew anything about them.
It's key to remember. Tiananmen wasn't a protest, that happened over a single day or weekend. The -- the protests took nearly two months, before they rolled the tanks out. So we may just be in just the first inning here, but this is getting out of control in China.
So protester -- or, a worker protest at Foxconn, the Apple factory. By the way, Apple, they really care about the people. Man, they are so enlightened. They're so great. As an artist, I can only use an Apple product because they just get me, as an artist, you know.
That's why I was so proud to see, they shut off the airdrop ability in China. Now, why would you do that?
Because that's a way you could communicate with other people, without having it tracked.
And Apple is so one with humanity, and the earth. And what's good and right.
They wanted to make sure that the government could track every word, every image, everything. They needed -- you know Xi Jinping. He gets a bad name.
And they just want to help him out a bit. So congratulations, Apple. So for several weeks, this has been going on.
It went from tens of thousands of Foxconn workers, to hundreds of thousands of other people in the area. But the protest was still primarily about removing the zero COVID restrictions.
But then, over just a couple more days, something changing.
I'll pick it up there, in 60 seconds.
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GLENN: Ten-second station ID.
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Okay. So the worker protests started as an anti-COVID protest.
However, this has now evolved into honest anti-CCP protest, and that's not done.
Up until two weeks ago, protesters publicly called for the end of Xi Jinping's rule and the end of the Communist Party.
And it would have been pretty much done. Disappeared by the secret police. Likely put to death.
But over the last few days. Over the weekend, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets, to scream those exact demands. Spray painting the same on the sides of government buildings.
Even posting down with the CCP online.
This has not been seen since Tiananmen. The other major difference. Which should matter to every American, and the whole world, is the size and the scope of China's role in the global economy.
In 1989, China was less than 2 percent of global GDP. And engaged in very little trade. Today, China is merely 20 percent of the global GDP.
And provides more than 30 percent of all manufacturing.
China facilitates over 25 percent of all global shipping. China consumes 20 percent of all global energy supplies.
You know they used to say. If we catch a cold, Europe gets pneumonia. Now it's if China sneezes, the world could die.
What happens if China has a heart attack?
We have supply chain problems now. Wait until this country has to shut down.
Also, it's key to remember, the CCP just had their once every five-year Congress. They elected a whole new Politburo and central committee. All allies of President Xi. All who sworn had to support the zero COVID policy, that causes the protest in the first place. The Chinese people don't have -- they don't have many places to go, but they know right where the blame goes. And they are actually speaking it.
One last thought on this: You know, how those -- those protests ended. Right?
We're all very clear on the tanks that rolled in.
In the end, 2700 people were dead. Twice as many were injured. That was a single protest in one square.
The protest this last weekend, involved a thousand times more people, across dozens of major regions.
Let's hope my math sucks. And pray that we don't have a repeat of 1989.
This is game-changing. They either go full authoritarian and start slaughtering people like Mao. Or there is a massive change in China.
