In South Africa, we are supposed to have a free press. Comparing the content in local media to other media from around the world, I notice something particularly strange. There is a total absence of any content critical of China, this is simply not reasonable considering that China has a terrible reputation worldwide for the lack of human rights. That alone should be generating quite a number of articles from some of our journo’s who are so vocal about human rights abuses in other parts of the world. Recently there have been a number of racist incidents in China which we don’t hear much about in SA, if its reported at all.

In June 2020, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic which started in China, we are now seeing aggressive behaviour by China on the border with India, as well as in the South China sea. On the 16th of June 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a skirmish with the Chinese, several more were injured. China has not released casualty figures on its side. The South African media have not even reported on this potentially very dangerous situation.

South Africa is a member of the “BRICS” group of nations, yet when 2 of the nations are in a situation which could lead to war, the SA media does not even bother to report, how weird is that? Another odd thing about our local media, is that they seem to mirror the left wing leanings and anti-Trump rhetoric of the democratic party in the USA. You never see anything about how Trump has managed to improve the unemployment figures in the USA (apparently, black Americans especially have benefitted). It is unlikely that all of our journalists are Trump hating left wing fanatics. So, what is causing this imbalance in our local media?

THE LAST 20 YEARS.
If we step back for a second, and take a look at how things have transpired, in the last 20 years or so, there seems to be a pattern. This pattern, would seem to have been a deliberate attempt to undermine the stability in the country. The “arms deal” was near the start of this pattern. It seems to have laid the foundation for later manipulation of influential individuals. Why would SA need to buy so many arms, who instigated the purchase? The next major influence in our country came courtesy of the Gupta brothers and “state capture”.

From what I have read in the media, it seems that the Gupta’s started out in SA with just 1 of the brothers selling shoes from the boot (trunk in the USA) of his car. The jump from selling from a car boot to being the proud owners of Sahara computers, seems to have happened quite quickly. Having started a business, myself in the past, I know that this transition would have been quite difficult, without help from some deep pockets. If they had help, where did that help originate? The Guptas also seem like brash braggarts, I would not expect them to be capable of the sophistication needed for various deceptions attached to the state capture story. I suspect they were “front” men, who were later “thrown under the bus”.

Then we have various racist groups (anti-white), that have sprung up in recent years, and seem to be able to finance a fair amount of travel logistics around the country, the source of their finances are a bit of a mystery. There seems to an underlying thread connecting these somewhat odd happenings, could it be part of a masterplan by a group working their way toward dominating the world? Interestingly the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has expressed the desire to become the dominant country in the world, replacing the USA.

Elsewhere in the world, the “belt and road” policy of China is stirring up quite a lot of controversy. China seems to be financing many countries, well beyond their ability to repay loans, for infrastructure development, which often is not really needed. In SA China (or Chinese companies), now own shares in quite a number of sectors in our economy, amongst them the media and banking sectors. Could it be that China is now able to keep any criticism of the CCP out of our media? My humble opinion is that none of our media (with the exception of idiot blogs like this one), are prepared to publish anything critical of China.

Our TV channels are all supporting the ruling party, the most blatant now being eTV (eNCA). Since the demise of ANN7, things have improved, in that the partiality is now, subtler. I do not get to see any print media, and have to rely on the internet for much of the news, but judging by the various local news sites, there is no content critical of China and the criticism of government is relatively mild. This strange situation is not natural and therefore must be influenced by someone. The close ties our governing party has with the Chinese would explain why the SABC is pro-China, but what about the other media? Does China have shares in all media groups in SA? I don’t know, but they definitely have shares in some of them. Could editors in truly independent media be influenced to avoid criticizing China? In the USA China has been spending huge amounts on “advertorial” content in the biggest US news media (Washington Post etc.).

There are some indications of the Chinese meddling in our internal affairs, starting with the fact that some of the dodgiest contracts influenced by the Gupta’s were with Chinese companies. Remember that China is a communist country, and that “private” companies are not private at all. If China is such a good friend to us, why did they not expose the dodgy dealings of their rail companies? In every town and city in SA there are small Chinese businesses, which are run by Chinese people living inside the shops, they employ almost no locals and do not mix with the local population. They sell most local staples as well as Chinese products. These shops appear to be part of a distribution group which delivers only them. These are obviously not normal immigrants, so what is the real reason for them being here? I would like to know.

The corona virus which is currently causing chaos around the world started in China, unless you believe the Chinese propaganda which has the virus coming from the USA to China. The origins of the virus have been attributed to bats, and then migrating through pangolins to humans. Apparently only Chinese experts were in favour of this story, other experts are very doubtful. Various countries around the world are most disgusted with the behaviour of the Chinese in regard to this virus spreading internationally. The virus was first noticed in Wuhan in the Hubei province of China. By an amazing coincidence there is a virology laboratory in Wuhan.

CCP SUPPRESSION OF COVID-19

The Chinese government (CCP), suppressed the news of this virus, and were in denial for at least 2 months. They then closed the internal borders of Hubei province from the rest of the country, but apparently, still allowed INTERNATIONAL flights from Wuhan airport. I have read estimates of several million passengers leaving Wuhan for international destinations before the airport was shut down.

During this time Taiwan notified the WHO at the end of December 2019, of a serious mystery virus spreading between humans in China. The WHO, in the person of Mr. Ghebreyesus ignored Taiwan and praised China for their heroic control of the virus. This same person denigrated Donald Trump for closing air travel with China late in January 2020 (many in the democratic party also ridiculing

Trump at this time, some, even calling him racist).

From then it took the WHO another month and a half to declare the virus a pandemic. And people wonder why Trump is upset with the WHO.

Even as this virus is distracting people all over the world, and stock markets have plummeted, China (or Chinese companies), have been buying up cut price shares on various world markets. In some areas, like India, they have been prevented from buying shares in strategic companies.  The main opposition to China’s expansionist policies has come from Donald Trump. Can we really believe that all the anti-Trump sentiment is spontaneous? Or could it be part of concerted effort to discredit him? China is financing more than just the media in the USA, they have also infiltrated over 80 colleges, through their “Confucius Institutes”. They also have many “sister state” agreements in the USA. The influence of China is now recognized as being widespread within the USA.

There are also some reports of strange things happening with the supply of PPE’s (personal protective equipment) from around the world, involving China quietly buying up PPE supplies from the end of November 2020. Supplies from China to other countries (several in Europe) being returned as being substandard, even in SA. Take-a lot has recently withdrawn m95 face masks, would anyone like to bet they came from China. Virus test kits from China also have apparently been rejected because they have an accuracy rate of lower than 25 %, in some cases only 4%.

In SA we have the curious case of someone alleging that some of the test kits were contaminated. Curiously he has been prosecuted for spreading “fake” news. Even more curiously that case has been postponed until July. The alleged perpetrator apparently is on bail, with the condition that he may not publically say anything about the matter. Yet he has apparently said that he does not apologise for his utterances. I will not be at all surprised, if the case is quietly withdrawn. Could the test kits, he was referring to, have come from China? Could all of the contaminated kits be in use in the Western Cape? This may explain why the Western Cape has such high numbers of virus cases. Maybe I will also be prosecuted for having such dastardly thoughts.

There are other strange details which I could add to this article which also could show that China is not our “friend”, but I don’t want to write a book! As a country, what should we do at this time? In my opinion, we need to try and become less dependent on China, or we should all learn to speak Mandarin or Cantonese, since we will be a province of China quite soon.  It seems to me that we cannot rely on our journalists to expose anything dodgy about China, my conclusion therefore is that we do not have true “press freedom” in South Africa.  

In my view, our media should hang their heads in shame!