The Times’ recent article, entitled “British YouTubers funded by China”, has aroused quick contradiction from the YouTubers. Lee Barrett and Oli Barrett, two of the YouTube stars named in the article, refuted the Times on their YouTube channel, saying, “we choose what content we will produce. We decide what we’re gonna say and we decide what we’re gonna publish on our channel”.

（Lee Barrett’s reply to the Email sent by the journalists of the Times）

The two YouTubers are father and son. Lee has been in China for 13 years and has worked and lived in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen successively. They have been touring many cities and natural landscapes of China and vlogging all the way. In a light-heated and humorous style, their videos focus on urban development, high-tech and trips in China.

“Our purpose, is to show what China is really like.” On January 10, Lee and Oli participated in the concert with shared stories named “Meeting in Guangdong for a Blossoming Tone”, sharing their Shenzhen stories and China trips through live stream with international viewers.

According to the father and son team, Guangdong is not only an industrial and diverse province. “Guangzhou is very traditional while Shenzhen is a high-tech city.”

For them, Shenzhen is at the forefront of world science and technology, and the city has a number of technology business giants including Huawei and Tencent. “Shenzhen is a very interesting place to live in because it's arguably the most futuristic city in the world.”

Last year, on the occasion of the 2020 World 5G Convention, Lee and Oli also shared their vision of China's 5G with the world through videos. In the videos, Oli said, “I am pretty blown away by the transport infrastructure here. It just makes life convenient, cheap, and affordable to get everywhere.”

Lee believes that China's push for 5G is top-down compared to other countries. "The Chinese government has a lot of scientists and engineers. They understand the importance of technology from the state level, " Lee said.

When talking about western media’s reports on China, Lee said “none the facts are actually checked”. They hoped that their videos can bridge the gap between Chinese and western people.