I Overheard a Secret Chinese Meeting in Micronesia on Vacation
youtube.com
youtube.com
1) A high-enough Chinese official was at the same hotel, in a not well-known Asian nation, at the same time, within earshot of
2) a youtuber with sufficient hearing, analytical skills, and user base and
3) said official be dumb enough to talk about likely highly classified geopolitics within earshot
of said youtuber?
Versus:
1) Youtuber is making up said stories for clout/views?
* Note: I do not work for the CCP, although I guess that's exactly what someone working for the CCP would say...
Edit: I've been informed it was a pizza spot instead of hotel. My point still stands.
The Wikipedia article is confusing. It speaks of both an island and state that use the name Kosrae, lists 6600 total population for the state and 1500 as the largest population of any of the islands, an island named Lelu.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosrae
So if this is one of two restaurants on a tiny island with fewer than 1500 inhabitants, it's not insane to think he really overheard a government meeting with Chinese officials held at an establishment the government or those officials own.
Fact is stranger than fiction and "one in a million" odds means someone will experience it. This is the internet, not the mall in your hometown. People with statistical outlier experiences show up all the time on the internet.
So do liars, charlatans and con artists, "but what are the odds..." is a pretty weak argument in this case.
Higher than you might expect--with some obvious downgrade due to being an "influencer".
Reporters used to book flights on routes to SF and SJC before major conferences to eavesdrop. I once was a random fourth in golf in with a judge and two lawyers who talked about how to take advantage of the Chargers/Qualcomm Stadium deals. etc.
People like to brag. People get busted for crime all the time because they can't keep their damn mouth shut.
2) It was a restaurant - one of only two restaurants on the (very small) island. And supposedly owned by the Governor.
3) I'm not sure what the nation being "well known" or not has to do with anything.
4) The youtuber is Chris Hadfield (the astronaut)'s son. I mean it's theoretically possible he could be making it up for views, but if he wanted views there are other topics he could probably milk harder.
I had my headphones on but not listening to anything and there was a guy next to me on a business call. He proceeds to glance around and then announce to his colleagues on the phone, "this is to be kept within this meeting" and then spills the beans on a multimillion £ property deal they are working on, roughly when money was due to be transferred from whom etc. While he didn't state everything, there was enough information to do thorough research on him and their deal. Depending on who else was listening he potentially painted a target on himself for some form of fraud.
The moral of the story... people do dumb things, especially when they think they are 'safe', or they are arrogant.
- The meeting took place on the island of Kosrae in Micronesia.
- Recently, the president of Micronesia wrote a letter denouncing Chinese interference and recommending supporting Taiwan instead.
- Losing control of Micronesia would weaken US supply routes in Asia and force a bottleneck in supporting bases in countries like South Korea and Japan.
- The Chinese officials tried deflecting the conversation away from the recent anti-China letter.
- Local residents said China had been bribing politicians and threatening leaders who didn't cooperate.
- Other countries like Fiji and the Solomon Islands have been shifting towards China, making Micronesia's alignment more important for the US.
- The vlogger decided to share what he witnessed with Micronesian government contacts, though the outcome of that was unclear.
- The video argues that a "cold war" is happening in the Pacific as spheres of influence are reshaped.
- Micronesia's strategic location and political alignment will impact stability in the region.
That's the take home point for anybody unaware of China reaching out to smaller nations in the Pacific and elsewhere across the world.
They're following in the path of European colonisers and offering big loans with small | deferred interest rates and building support for China, Chinese ports and ground stations.
It's entirely possible to overhear discussions between chinese diplomats | business consultants in small nations, it's unlikely to hear any deep chinese secrtes, just sweet talking and general misdirection.
"We'll give you access to large amounts of money and kickstart big public works if you just support us with votes in the UN" is very much a teaser to lock people in for the longer term plans.
This is a really absurd thing to say, unless I missed some news and they're going in with guns and massacring people to replace them with some imported Chinese settlers. It's either historical revisionism or ridiculous hyperbole.
English as a second language, perhaps?
Also, the British did not replace India with imported English settlers.
Your coment appears delibrately absurd and hyperbolic, maybe tone your edgelording down a notch or two?
A more sensible response would have been to ask in what sense are the Chinese acting in the manner of former world powers.
A smarter person would have asked that question of themselves and determined their own answer.
Implying they can't read, "edgelording", that they are non sensible and stupid.
No matter what you are trying to convey, do you need to do it in such a way?
Funny. If you're going to accuse me of being a paid agent of some government you don't like, do it openly. This way just makes you look racist, which I don't even think you were intending.
The discussion was about China wanting help from them in their upcoming war with Taiwan. The video also gives background, such as China is providing a lot of aid and the roads being built look suspiciously like potential landing strips.
Kosrae is the only remaining state in Micronesia not de facto currently pwned by China. If China took control if it, all of Micronesia could effectively be closed to US ships to cut Taiwan off from American military aid, among other things.
Although Oceania, of which Micronesia is only one part, is full of tiny islands, they claim large spans of water around them as part of their "nation." I have seen them described as tiny islands but large ocean states or something like that.
When he walked in, the two groups were discussing the aforementioned 12-page letter. As soon as he came in, they promptly changed the subject. Every time the Chinese mentioned "China", they lowered their voiced.
The local governor, thrilled to be courted by the Chinese and not savvy about international politics, loudly replied to all their questions, oblivious to his presence, and made three attempts to get the discussion back on track and about the letter while the Chinese avoided the topic.
It being a tiny island in a big ocean, the Chinese diplomats were stranded there an additional two days. He knew the local guy at the table was the governor because the plates of his vehicle said "governor." For the next two days, the governor entertained his stranded guests by giving them a tour of the island, which allowed the vacationers to run into them repeatedly.
The local governor continued to act like a politically unsavvy local who felt his ego all puffed up by the presence of his important guests and repeatedly and loudly announced who they were every chance he got.
The video ends with suggesting there is currently a cold war ongoing in the Pacific. China is trying to establish control of waters "from Hong Kong to Honolulu" and this would create a shipping and naval bottleneck forcing American ships through waters within range of Chinese big guns. He is concerned a shooting war is coming and this could be a problem for the world, though it's currently drama quietly playing out in "backroom" deals over pizza across probably every island in the region.
This is not out of line with headlines I saw a few days ago concerning Chinese air exercises.
Their official policy is also to take back Taiwan.
cool to witness intro scenes of war movies 70 years from now.