The News That Doesn’t Fit to Print or Broadcast

If I told you that thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of workers in Germany who hadn’t been paid for months or were being laid off were setting factories ablaze in protest almost every other day, this would certainly make international news. You might be curious enough to follow up on that news. Certainly, if this were happening in Great Britain or France or Russia or Iran, that would be evident in virtually every mainstream news outlet after each incident happened, being featured on CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, The BBC, Sky News, and in all the major newspapers.

If I told you that, as horrific as the plowing down of shoppers in Germany at an outdoor Christmas fair was, something like this was also happening every few days in one specific country, you might think that that was also newsworthy enough to be mentioned on an American national news broadcast and in other countries as well.

One country that’s not likely to broadcast the news of these employee protests, arsons and the plowing down of pedestrians is the country where these incidents are happening—because in a workers’ paradise, these things aren’t supposed to happen. In fact, if anyone in this particular country is caught releasing videos or stories of protests —of factories torched by disgruntled workers or innocent civilians who have been plowed down or assaulted by individuals who simply couldn’t take it anymore — then the individuals leaking these videos and news stories to the outside world face arrest, imprisonment, and possible disappearance by the authorities.

What I’ve been describing has been happening in China on an almost daily basis for the past several months and yet American and European news bureaus are failing to report on any of it. Much of this unrest is a result of the severe downturn in the Chinese economy. In Baotou, Inner Mongolia, north of Beijing, where factory workers and those mining rare earth minerals haven’t been paid for months, even the police force hasn’t been paid their wages by the state. Do you sense a potential problem here? Any student of history, particularly the history of political revolutions — France and Russia, in particular, will note a familiar pattern here.

The probable reason that American and European news bureaus are ignoring these stories is because they’re afraid of falling into disfavor with the Chinese Communist Party and being expelled from China. Such is the Catch-22 for international news bureaus: Don’t report, stay in China and never challenge the lies from the CCP as to the protests, the crime, or what’s really happening with the Chinese economy…or report on any one of these stories and be expelled—and lose any possibility of ever reporting on what’s happening in China again.

Chinese workers who haven’t been paid for months are realizing that they have been working essentially as slaves to produce goods that they cannot afford for other countries. Is China at a breaking point? If the police force isn’t paid for months, how inclined are they to maintain public order? If firefighters aren’t paid, how long before fires spread throughout China’s major cities and manufacturing centers? Is the Chinese economy at an intermediate or advanced stage of collapse? Are the CCP’s days numbered? Will the workers in the workers’ paradise unite? Outwardly on the world stage, this doesn’t bode well for the stability of peace in the region. A wounded animal is often more dangerous and erratic; it may be tempted to lash out at its neighbors. China may do just that in a desperate attempt to infuse some semblance of national pride to avert homegrown political uprisings. China watchers in the incoming Trump administration need to monitor events in China closely and be prepared to respond strategically to whatever is coming…because if China’s economy is in the advanced stage of collapse, bad things are likely to happen—and perhaps not just in China.