Welcome back to The Restricted Handling Podcast, your unfiltered look at global power plays, military moves, and covert chaos from Beijing to the Baltic. In this episode — “China: Corruption, Crackdowns, and Control” — we’re diving headfirst into a 24-hour whirlwind of Chinese and Russian maneuvering, military slowdowns, and gray-zone drama that’s reshaping the balance of power across the Indo-Pacific. 

The Chinese Communist Party is cleaning house — but it’s scrubbing away its own muscle in the process. Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption purge has slammed the brakes on Beijing’s once unstoppable military modernization drive. With eight top generals ousted (including the PLA’s number two, He Weidong), contracts frozen, and production lines stalled, China’s defense industry is bleeding money and momentum. We’ll unpack how that’s throwing off timelines for hypersonic weapons, missile systems, and aircraft production — and why Japan and South Korea are quietly sprinting past Beijing in defense revenues. 

Then we turn to the rare earth wars. Beijing’s export controls are rattling Europe, with rare earth metal prices — especially yttrium — skyrocketing 4,400% this year. It’s a bureaucratic chokehold disguised as policy, and European firms like BMW, Nokia, and TotalEnergies are feeling the squeeze. We’ll break down how China’s trade tactics are weaponizing supply chains and why the U.S.-Japan alliance is scrambling to dig up new deep-sea mineral sources before it’s too late. 

Across the Taiwan Strait, Taipei is taking “whole-of-society defense” to the next level. Civilian company Apex Aviation is strapping high-tech U.S. radar gear to light aircraft to track Chinese warships — proof that Taiwan’s citizens aren’t just watching the skies, they’re defending them. Meanwhile, the PLA’s gray-zone harassment keeps intensifying, with near-daily incursions and escalating risks of miscalculation. 

We’ll also hit the growing Russia-China bromance — Putin’s new visa-free travel for Chinese citizens, China’s “Warrior-IX” exercises with Pakistan, and the PLA’s presence in the South China Sea — before zooming out to Australia and the Philippines, where allies are pushing back hard. The Philippines just sent its coast guard flagship toe-to-toe with a Chinese patrol at Scarborough Shoal, while Canberra tracks a Chinese flotilla edging toward its waters. 

And because no episode about modern China is complete without some digital dystopia, we’re closing with how Beijing’s pushing AI-powered censorship, building “smart courts,” and even sneaking propaganda accounts past the Great Firewall. 

From corruption to control, from rare earths to reconnaissance — this is China’s power game laid bare. Tune in, strap in, and let’s get into it.