- 4/20/2025
The China Now special program informs about this country's news. Telesur English presents a new episode of “China Now”, a wave media's production that showcases the culture, technology, and politics of the Asian Giant. China Now is a show that explores the past and future of the Asian Giant. teleSUR
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00:00Hello, TeleSuite English presents a new episode of China Now, our media's production that showcases the core technology and politics of the Asian giant.
00:18In this first segment, China Currents dive into the top stories of the week, such as China hitting back at Trump's tires, China launching a military drill around Taiwan Island, and Chinese rescue teams save and then helping the affected people of Myanmar after the earthquake. Let's take a look.
00:48Welcome to China Currents, your weekly news report on the latest developments in China.
01:06I'm Mimi, and in this episode, China hits back at Trump's tariffs.
01:12China launches military drill around Taiwan Island. Chinese rescue teams achieved a miracle in Myanmar.
01:20First, China's turn in Trump's tariff war.
01:24On April 2nd, Trump announced a 34% tariff hike on Chinese goods.
01:30China's Ministry of Commerce swiftly introduced three countermeasures on April 4th, delivering not only an economic blow to Trump,
01:38but also significantly undermining the US defense industry's capacity to provoke a third world war.
01:46First, China declared that starting April 10th, it would impose a 34% tariff on all US imports,
01:55with agricultural products like soybeans and corn bearing the brunt, applying targeted pressure on Trump's voter base.
02:03The New York Times admitted that it will hit hard.
02:07According to the US Department of Agriculture, in 2024, China consumed 14% of all US agricultural exports and took in more than $27 billion worth of those exports and related products.
02:23On the other hand, Carlos Meira, head of agricultural market research at Rabo Bank, told Reuters,
02:30Brazil will be by far the main beneficiary, the biggest supplier that can replace US soybeans to China.
02:38But others could benefit too, including Argentina and Paraguay.
02:43On wheat, Australia and Argentina should benefit.
02:47Second, China announced export controls on seven rare earth minerals and their compounds, directly exposing weaknesses in US defense and technology supply chains.
02:59Taking samarium as an example, its primary commercial use is in manufacturing samarium cobalt magnets,
03:07which are critical materials for high-performance motors and precision gyroscopes essential to satellite and missile production.
03:16Reuters highlighted that China accounts for roughly 90% of global rare earth supplies, causing concerns among US aerospace manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, producer of the F-35 fighter jets.
03:30While the US government has stockpiles of some rare earth, but not enough to supply its defense contractors in perpetuity.
03:39More crucially, a 2014 University of Michigan study identified samarium hexaboride as a vital material for quantum computing.
03:49In June 2024, the University of California announced new breakthroughs in research on this compound.
03:57However, the ripple effects of Trump's tariffs have cast uncertainty over the commercializing of such technologies in the US.
04:06And third, China's Ministry of Commerce added 11 US entities to its unreliable entities list, banning trade and investment activities with Chinese firms.
04:19Drone XL analysis revealed these 11 companies are the backbone of America's $9.2 billion drone industry.
04:29Take Skydio as an example.
04:32The company ignored Beijing's warnings to engage in military technology collaboration with Taiwan.
04:38Additionally, as disclosed by Jewish Voice of Peace, the Israeli military ordered dozens of Skydio reconnaissance drones in 2023, later deployed in Gaza for military operations.
04:52In 2024, Yale University police used Skydio's military-grade drones to surveil student protesters.
05:03Jewish currents reported these drones to assemble dossiers on suspected students, to later punish them.
05:11Now, Beijing finally decided to stand up to these American drone companies.
05:16Drone XL noted that US drone production lacks the scale to quickly replace Chinese supply chains.
05:24Scaling domestic capacity for components and rare earths could cost billions and take years, straining budgets.
05:32Beyond China, the EU and Canada have also rolled out countermeasures.
05:38Yet, on April 6th, the United Nations reiterated that nobody wins in a trade war, aligning with China's long-standing stance.
05:48Yale University's Budget Lab research indicates the new tariffs will raise US prices by 2.3% in the short term, equivalent to an average household loss of $3,800.
06:01Not only American citizens, but also US businesses stand to lose.
06:08Rhodey's reported iPhone prices could surge 30-40%, eroding the competitiveness of this iconic product and creating opportunities for rivals like Samsung.
06:20Rosenblatt Security's Croquette noted,
06:23Our quick math on Trump's tariff Liberation Day suggests this could blow up Apple, potentially costing the company up to $40 billion.
06:34Said,
06:35It's hard for us to imagine Trump blowing up an American icon.
06:40Trump's tariffs are drawing global investor criticism.
06:44On social media platform X, Trump reposted a post claiming,
06:49Warren Buffett praised Trump for the best economic move in 50 years.
06:54However, CNBC reported,
06:57Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway promptly issued a denial, with Buffett himself stressing he would refrain from commenting on economic policies until May 3.
07:08In contrast, on April 6th, China's Ministry of Commerce hosted a roundtable with 20 US enterprises, including Tesla.
07:17Earlier, following Tim Cook's participation in the 2025 China Development Forum, Apple announced a $99 million expansion in China focused on clean energy.
07:30Apple CEO Jeff Williams stated,
07:34We're honored to deepen collaboration with suppliers across China to drive innovation and progress for our shared planet.
07:42Clearly, US companies and investors prefer aligning with the builder of the global economy over a disruptor like Trump.
07:51Chinese strategist Professor Wang Xiangshui observed that Trump, an unsuccessful businessman,
07:59has proven destructive rather than constructive in managing the world's largest economy.
08:05One key challenge he poses is America's increasingly closed market, which China cannot prevent the US from committing suicide.
08:15However, China's development of its domestic market and sustaining trade with other partnerships will provide stability in an uncertain world.
08:26Meanwhile, regarding the Trump administration's relentless self-defeating policies,
08:31the Chinese embassy in the US seemed to deliver its final response as early as March.
08:37If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war, or any other type of war, we are ready to fight till the end.
08:47Moving on, from April 1st to 2nd, the Chinese People's Liberation Army, PLA, conducted the Straight Thunder 2025A exercises around Taiwan Island.
09:00The US State Department criticized the drills, stating they would exacerbate tensions and undermine cross-strait peace and stability.
09:09However, Chinese media outlet Guan Cha argued that the exercises are conducive to regional stability.
09:18In 2022, following Nancy Pelosi's irresponsible behavior, the PLA conducted rapid landing drills as a warning.
09:26But, by 2024, the joint SWORD series began shifting focus, placing more emphasis on the Navy's blockade capabilities alongside amphibious landing operations.
09:41In the latest Straight Thunder 2025A exercise, landing operations were further downplayed.
09:47While training increasingly focused on the sustained control of air and sea domains, and on coordination between the Navy and Marine Police to implement a regular maritime blockade.
10:00This evolving approach reflects a strategic shift.
10:04As reunification by force becomes a less daunting prospect for Beijing,
10:09a prolonged blockade is seen as a more cost-effective means of helping Taiwan separatists to recognize reality.
10:19One example lies in energy security, a key vulnerability for Taiwan.
10:24Taiwan separatists often claim the island maintains four to five months of strategic oil reserves and can hold out until US forces arrive.
10:34However, as Guan Cha points out, Taiwan's energy self-sufficiency is extremely low, with over 97% of its coal, oil and natural gas imported by sea.
10:47During the joint SWORD 2024B exercise in May 2024, foreign LNG carriers avoided the PLA's drill zones, resulting in three consecutive days without LNG deliveries
11:00and reducing the island's natural gas reserves to just one week.
11:05Similarly, during the recent exercises, the Taita-2 LNG ship was unable to enter port due to live-fire drills.
11:14On April 3rd, Taiwan's United news outlet acknowledged that the mainland had exploited Taiwan's energy vulnerability.
11:23Moreover, on April 2nd, while the PLA conducted its drills, commercial satellite imagery showed the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group transitioning into the South China Sea.
11:35However, instead of approaching Taiwan Island, it deliberately kept its distance and headed straight for the Middle East, offering no tangible support to Taipei.
11:46These developments suggest that, through a series of increasingly sophisticated exercises, Beijing has effectively exposed the weaknesses in Taiwan's separatist narratives and bring the regional situation back on track.
12:02Next up, on April 2nd, more than 120 hours after a powerful earthquake struck Myanmar, Chinese rescuers pulled a 52-year-old man alive from the rubble of a collapsed hotel in Mandalay.
12:17According to China Daily, this rescue defied staggering odds, occurring well beyond the critical 72-hour survival window and under scorching temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius.
12:30This man, now recovering in stable condition at a local hospital, was trapped beneath the hotel's three collapsed lower floors.
12:38Team leader Yue Xing of China's search and rescue team revealed that advanced life detection equipment pinpointed his location.
12:47Rescuers drilled downward from the ground level, using an endoscope to locate him.
12:53Remarkably, the survivor had sheltered between two beds, shielding himself from debris.
13:00He had a pot of water and ventilation key to his survival, Yue noted.
13:06After establishing contact via translator, rescuers administered saline and spent hours carefully extracting him.
13:15The operation involved China's international search and rescue team, Hong Kong rescuers and Shenzhen Rescue volunteers.
13:24Blue Sky Rescue and others have worked over 100 hours since arriving on March 30th.
13:31So far, the Chinese rescue teams have saved nine lives.
13:35That's all for today.
13:36Thank you for watching this episode of China Currents.
13:40If you have any thoughts or comments, please leave it below.
13:43See you next time.
14:05We have a short break, but don't go away because we'll be right back.
14:23Welcome back to China Now.
14:24Today, Thinkers Forum's welcome CEO gave call researchers Luis Vincent Gave, Professor Xu Lan, and Professor Shana Weiwei.
14:33Let's see.
14:47Trump this time around is very different from Trump the first time around.
14:50You know, Trump the first time around was always tweeting about the stock market and talking about the stock market all the time.
14:56Trump this time around has a much bigger challenge on his hand because few people realize this, few people even remember.
15:03But, you know, five years ago when COVID hit, and it was pretty much exactly five years ago.
15:08But five years ago when COVID hit, U.S.
15:11corporates went out and borrowed a lot of money because all of a sudden interest rates were at zero.
15:16So they all issued record amounts of debt.
15:18They all issued tons and tons of corporate debt.
15:21Now, most corporate debt in the United States is five years.
15:25So they all have to essentially roll over the debt over the next second half of this year, first half of next year.
15:35And this is the big problem for Trump is that as all these corporates roll over debt at a much higher interest rate, they're going to stop capital spending.
15:43They're going to, you know, fire people.
15:45They're going to have to to reduce their expenses.
15:47And it might be enough to push the U.S. into a recession at precisely the wrong time, because it will be just before the midterm elections.
15:54And the last thing he wants is the Democrats to win, because then if they win, they're going to say, oh, impeachment, this and et cetera.
16:01And then he's got like two years where he's just fighting the Democrats.
16:04So I think if you're Trump, your main goal today is I need to get the interest rate down because otherwise the corporates can't roll over their debts.
16:15So he's doing everything he can to cut interest rates, which means reduce government spending, arm twist foreign governments into buying long dated bonds and talk down the growth.
16:27So, you know, the policy right now in the United States is pointing towards lower bond yields.
16:35If you get lower bond yields, you also get a lower U.S. dollar.
16:38Now, against that, the third policy, the third leg of the stool for Trump is he wants to get lower energy prices.
16:45And I think that's why he's, you know, he was very keen to throw Ukraine under the bus because essentially he wants Russia to start, you know, basically producing more oil again.
16:59You know, pre-Ukraine war, Russia was producing roughly ten and a half million barrels per day.
17:05Now it's producing nine million barrels per day.
17:08Russia needs to have Halibur and Schlumberger and other Western oil service companies to upgrade their equipment to go back to producing a lot.
17:17So the Trump policy is very simple.
17:20They want lower interest rates, lower dollar, lower oil.
17:23Doesn't mean they'll get it, but that's what they're trying to do.
17:26Now, if so, it's no longer about trying to drive the stock market up.
17:31These are the three goals.
17:35So that the tariffs seem contradictory with that goal.
17:39So here, the big question is, are the tariff a goal in themselves or are they a tool to get something else?
17:49And I still think the tariffs for Trump are a tool to get something else.
17:52And what he wants, he wants to sit down with Xi Jinping in June and tell Xi Jinping, look,
17:58either I'm going to put a bunch of tariffs or you've got to buy a lot of my bonds.
18:04I'm going to issue some 50 years zero coupon bonds and you're going to buy those.
18:07He's going to say the same thing to the Europeans.
18:09He's going to say the same thing to the Japanese and to the Koreans.
18:13It's OK.
18:15You guys have big trade surplus with me.
18:18So either I'm going to put tariffs to reduce the trade surplus or you take the trade surplus and you put it into 50 years zero coupon bonds.
18:27Because when you listen to the rhetoric of Trump, it always comes back to the same thing.
18:32He's always promising.
18:33It's OK.
18:34The foreigners will pay.
18:35The Mexicans will pay for the wall.
18:37Like the budget deficits will sell citizenship for five million US dollars a pop.
18:42The tariffs will pay for themselves, et cetera, et cetera.
18:45It's always foreigners will pay.
18:47I think if you're China, your big fear when Trump was elected.
18:52So two months ago, three months ago, the big fear had to be not that Trump would put a bunch of tariffs on your goods because you don't really care about that anymore.
19:02To be to be perfectly blunt, you know, if you go back a decade, Chinese exports to the United States were eight percent of Chinese GDP.
19:10Now it's two point seven percent of Chinese GDP.
19:12So it doesn't matter that much anymore.
19:15Look at what China exports to the United States.
19:17To be perfectly honest, you look at what China exports.
19:20You know, roughly I'm sort of rounding the numbers, but, you know, roughly 20 percent is Apple.
19:27So if the U.S. wants to put a bunch of tariffs on Apple, so be it.
19:32Like, you know, like, who cares?
19:35Another 20 percent is high in electronics.
19:37And that can't go anywhere because it's complicated supply chains that can't move to Vietnam, India or wherever else.
19:44Then you've got 20 percent of, you know, sort of high end machine tools or low end machine tools like, you know, the Black and Decker or like Johnson Motors, all that stuff.
19:56Now, that part conceptually, that could go somewhere else.
20:00And then you've got another 40 percent, which is all the, frankly, low value added stuff.
20:07The shoes, the T-shirts, the Tupperware, the furniture, all that stuff that is leaving China gradually anyway.
20:14It's going to places like Vietnam, like Indonesia.
20:17And I think that, you know, the Chinese leadership, they don't really care if they lose that part.
20:21They know anyway, they're going to lose it.
20:23They're going to lose it over time.
20:24Like, you know, shoes, plastic toys.
20:27It's like, yeah, it's going to, it's bound to leave anyway.
20:31So, and again, it's like at this point, it's 2.7 percent of Chinese GDP.
20:38I think that's why the market doesn't really care.
20:40I think the big fear, if you were China, was that Trump would try to build an anti-China coalition.
20:48That he would go to Europe, that he would go to Saudi Arabia, that he would go to Indonesia, to Australia, to Canada, to Mexico and say, hey, you can't do business with China anymore.
20:58You can't have them build factories here.
21:00You can't have them, you know, trade goods with you.
21:04I'm blocking out China, and you have to do it as well.
21:07Now, I think that was a big fear three months ago.
21:10Fast forward to today.
21:11And now, if Trump goes to Europe and says, hey, if you don't block out China, we're not going to be friends.
21:16Europe is going to say, we are not friends.
21:18What are you talking about?
21:19Like, we're not friends anymore.
21:21You can't tell us what to do.
21:23Today, you know, if you're Thailand, if you're Indonesia, and you see how Trump has treated Ukraine, and you see how Trump has treated Canada,
21:32and you see how Trump has treated France, and like all these other countries that are nominally friends to the United States.
21:39If you're Indonesia, if you're Thailand, do you think, okay, I'm going to be turning my back on China and doing more with the US?
21:46Or do you think, hmm, the US is not a very stable friend.
21:49I need to do more with China and less with the US.
21:51I think you think the latter, right?
21:53The US closing in on itself opens up huge avenues for China to do what China should now do is do friendly diplomacy.
22:08I actually think the biggest risk to all of this would be if oil prices, for whatever reason, shut up.
22:16Because we've now all been used to a world where oil is pretty cheap.
22:20And what's happened in recent years is that everybody has drawn down their oil inventories.
22:28So the US has, you know, usually a lot of oil inventories, but right now, they're like essentially at 20 year lows.
22:35China usually runs pretty high oil inventories, but even in China, inventories are pretty low.
22:39Same story in Japan.
22:41And so, now I'm not saying oil prices are going to shoot up, but if you had anything really bad happening, let's imagine that right now, Trump started to bomb the Houthis in Yemen.
22:54What if the Houthis turn around and say, you know what, we're going to go blow up the refined region Saudi Arabia, like, you know, payback.
23:03Saudi Arabia, you're a friend of the US, US is bombing us, so we're bombing you.
23:08Because we can't go bomb the US, it's too far away, but we'll bomb you instead.
23:12And again, I'm not saying this is going to happen.
23:15But then all of a sudden, oil is at $100 because we have no inventories, or it's at 110, 120.
23:21And then all of a sudden, you're in a very different world, one where the Fed is hiking interest rates because the inflation is much higher.
23:28And it's then, you know, markets really sell off.
23:33And I think for me, that's the risk I worry about.
23:38I think Chinese regulations was adaptive, more context dependent applications, you know, specific.
23:45As compared to the European regulation, we actually have a much umbrella, more broader regulations.
23:53But I think certainly, in terms of comparing with their US counterpart, probably Chinese companies probably said they have much more regulations under them for their use.
24:06China actually has a very well-developed system to regulate AI companies.
24:13I think, indeed, you know, it generates a lot of benefits.
24:18Chinese companies are subject to many specific regulations to ensure that the risks of their application would be minimized and mitigated.
24:28Chinese companies can do whatever they want.
24:31If they may see that at the initial stage, indeed, for example, facial recognition was used somewhat widely.
24:39But now we see there's a much more limitations on the use of that.
24:43Facial recognition is used.
24:45In many cases, there's a Chinese context actually provides actual more benefits of using, say, those technologies.
24:53For example, if you think about a very crowded train station, if you want to get through high volume passing through.
25:02And in there, I think that actually facial recognition could be better than human checks.
25:07But even now, I think also, as already being changed, you no longer need facial recognition.
25:14So I think, first of all, I think there is indeed some use.
25:18And then you have more new regulations and that limit certain use that now being viewed as pervasive and make collecting data that people may not feel comfortable.
25:29So I think there is some adaptive evolution of Chinese regulations on the AI use.
25:35I think that both the government and the industry have a very clear sense, particularly the big companies.
25:42The real challenge is how to prevent a so-called the AGI that's out of human control.
25:49That is something that indeed Chinese academia have talked a lot about.
25:53And also government policy also have talked a lot about.
25:56And also how you have a lot of the industrial so-called the commitments that's provided by industrial associations.
26:05You know, I think company have they are signing up for those commitments.
26:09So I think there are indeed a very wide range of tools that's been used to regulate EIS applications.
26:17I've been trying to advocate for agile governance.
26:20I think the agile governance is really referring to the situation that technology moves very fast.
26:27As we see that almost like every day or every week, you see some new model, new progress is being made in the AI.
26:35So technology moves very fast.
26:37However, I think for people who knows anything about the government, about regulations, about those things, that moves very, very slow.
26:45I mean, you have to, you know, first understand the situation and you draft something and to go through various consultation and then to debate.
26:54And then, so that takes years.
26:56So by the time you've already, you came, came up with something, the technology has already moved.
27:03You're always playing this chasing game.
27:05So I think that's the challenge for something like AI.
27:08It's where that's the situation we face.
27:11And the other thing is also because AI development is a new territory.
27:16When, for example, people are concerned about the AGI out of control and nobody knows when that will happen, right?
27:23You want it to explore, it's a push for the big model for AGI, but at the same time, at what point that becomes dangerous?
27:31So we've already, you know, been trying to, you know, I work with some people, technical people.
27:36And so I think defining some sort of red lines, but still it's not easy.
27:41And so the first thing that we, after recognizing this limitation, we have to change our mindset of having this comprehensive, very covering everything.
27:52And, you know, to make sure that this not miss anything, really have to tolerate incomplete kind of governance measures.
28:02Maybe we focus on this part.
28:05Maybe we're missing some other part, but let's go ahead.
28:08Try to get this out.
28:10So that actually would provide some guidance to the industry.
28:15So I think that's probably the first thing.
28:17So you, you have to abandon the idea that you wanted to have a very complete set of the rules to cover everything that, so that nobody can make any mistakes.
28:29That's probably going to be very hard.
28:31The second thing is that related to this, it's a kind of tools you use.
28:36You don't want to use those very harsh punishment, because I think it's evolving process.
28:42You know, it could be mishaps, you know, in companies, innovation, in some wrongly headed applications and so on.
28:50So you want to give them a signal, but not necessarily to punish them so hard so that it's very hard to innovate.
28:56The kind of tools you use will be somewhat different.
29:00And the third thing, I think, is the relationship between the regulators and those being regulated.
29:07In the past, I think that the regulator is like a cat.
29:11Those being regulated is sort of like a mouse.
29:14The mouse is always trying to find, wiggle, trying to find, where are the holes?
29:18So I can sort of pass it through.
29:20The regulator is like a cat.
29:22Okay, we're going to catch this mouse.
29:24If you're in that kind of a mindset, then it'd be very hard for the proper governance of the technology.
29:32The companies and the regulators, they need to have a good communication.
29:36So the companies can say, okay, we're moving in this direction, and we don't know what kind of problem this might produce.
29:43But we have a hunch that something might happen in this area.
29:47And the regulator can say, well, anything related to human lives and so on, that's a taboo.
29:53You can't do that.
29:54On the other hand, on some other things, you know, that might be possible.
29:57So you want to convey what's the government concern, the degree of concerns.
30:02And then the company can say, okay, what are the potential risks?
30:06That communication, they can strike a balance of where you want to move the technology.
30:11And that's a win-win situation.
30:14Because otherwise, the company might move in directions that actually is really worrisome to government.
30:20But the government actually to put a very harsh ban on in that area.
30:25And so the entire area will no longer be able to develop.
30:28So I think that communication is also crucial to define what are the more safe areas to work on.
30:37Because I think the companies don't know when they move forward, what are some of the potential risks.
30:43The government also don't know whether this is an area they can allow the company to move forward.
30:49So I think there's some kind of a, you know, uncharted territory that they really have to work together to say, okay, how we can balance the innovation and the risk.
31:00In the Chinese papers we published, we call this joint ignorance.
31:04We can say we are all learning. I think in terms of joint ignorance, I think it's from different countries also.
31:10I'm sure that there are indeed a lot of things that China is doing.
31:15I think people outside China do not know, and vice versa.
31:19So I think at least those are the three areas I think an agile governance approach might do better in this phase of the AI development.
31:29Right. I mean, it's more use nudging rather than big stick.
31:33And by the way, I don't think there is, we are going to have a totally consistent global governance on AI.
31:42Because many of these AI applications are domestic, contact specific.
31:48So I can imagine that there may be some applications in European countries are governed in one way, in China, another, and in the US, there's another.
31:58But at the same time, we also have some common risks that really, I think, threatens the existence of human beings.
32:08So we, those risks, and we have to work together.
32:12So we call that a sort of public good, AI safety as a global public good.
32:18I think it's those kind of risks like the AI system out of control.
32:23I think we need to have global collaborations.
32:27Of course, we're also concerned about AI being used in the military and in the conflict situations.
32:34And there again, I think something there's a need, you know, to be a global governing regime to make sure that indeed will not be put into those kind of situations.
32:45Let me, this is another thing I always like to use and what I call the regime complex.
32:50I think for people who study global governance, and this is a term people use it very often.
32:56A regime complex is referring to the situation that you have some critical issues of global governance.
33:03You are not short of regimes governing this issue, but they have too many.
33:09Many of these regimes can, they always, they have some say on this.
33:13And they wanted to govern the data part, they want to govern the computing power and so on.
33:19So you have many overlapping regimes.
33:23Some of them are, you know, contradicting with one another and some other overlapping and so on.
33:28Unfortunately, this regimes, there's no hierarchical relationship.
33:33You can't say my regime is on top of yours.
33:36So that's the challenging situation for AI governance.
33:41So I think we all agree that indeed, UN system is still, we can say for the huge major challenge that like the AI out of control should be, it should be a major platform.
33:54But at the same time, what kind of protocols to connect, you know, say, if we're going to develop a verifying system and a system to check about the safety of the system, you may want to have some other international body with more technical capabilities such as ITU and others.
34:13And some people also say we may have to produce, create another more technically competent agency.
34:19And so I think that at the moment, certainly, I think it's, it's something yet to be defined.
34:25And they actually we're working, you know, with, I'm working with some international colleagues and we're producing something for UN and to serve as an umbrella for global government.
34:35At the moment, I think in terms of platform, we have UN and we have this AI summit series started in the UK and in Seoul and now in Paris.
34:47So I think that's another platform and we have UN and some other international, so we are not sure the platform, but we need to have more enforceable kind of mechanism to ensure the safety of AI.
35:01UN and I think that's what we're doing.
35:03Thank you, Minister, for your kind invitation and thank you for the organizers of the forum for this great gathering.
35:18It's a great pleasure to speak at this forum on Myanmar Beyond 2025, challenges and opportunities in the multipolar world.
35:28And I will discuss four or five points for about 10 minutes.
35:34The first point is why a multipolar world is important.
35:40The answer is, in fact, very simple, because the opposite to multipolar world, that is, unipolar world, is unjust, is outdated.
35:53But unipolarity literally means absolute power, which corrupts absolutely.
36:00In the unipolar world, sanctions, missiles, color revolutions, and even wars are the norms.
36:08And virtually everything from dollars to trade, to technologies, to climate change, can all be weaponized, which cause so many havocs and untold human sufferings for millions upon millions of people.
36:27My second point is, a multipolar world has already emerged.
36:33With the rise of China, Russia, India, the BRICS, and ASEAN, and more, a multipolar world has already emerged.
36:46In the case of China, with seven decades of socialist construction, China has become the world's largest economy by purchasing power parity since 2014.
36:58It's already 11 years since China has become the world's largest economy by PPP.
37:05It's also the largest industrial manufacturing and trading nation in the world.
37:12It's also the world's largest consumer market.
37:17Amazingly, at the speed of roughly almost one industrial revolution, we accomplish almost one industrial revolution after another.
37:29Usually within one decade, we complete one industrial revolution.
37:34China missed the first and second industrial revolutions due to historical reasons.
37:41But since the new China was founded in 1949, and with the first 30 years under Chairman Mao, we laid the foundation, economic, social, cultural, and other foundations.
37:54And then, beginning from the reform era, tracing to 1978, with these four or five decades, roughly, we complete one revolution after another.
38:08So, by now, China is at the full frontier of the fourth and the new industrial revolution, with big data, AI, and quantum technologies in the more, as shown in the case of DeepSeq.
38:23Now, China is also the only country capable of providing goods, services, and experiences from all the four industrial revolutions to the whole world.
38:38And all this has already shown the multi-polar world has emerged.
38:44So, this fact alone, the four industrial revolutions in one, also means China is already very different, the world is already different.
38:56The third point is the rise of China and Russia and more as civilizational states or as civilizational communities in the multi-polar world.
39:09And this is important. As a full-fledged independent pole, China is also a civilizational state.
39:16With full sovereignty, powerful defense capability, immense economic, technological, cultural, and intellectual power.
39:24We believe in the motto of unite and prosper, not divide and rule. We hate that.
39:31Within China, we practice unite and prosper. In the international arena, we also advocate unite and prosper.
39:38We reject Western belief in divide and rule. We embrace the idea of a sheer future for mankind, not the American one.
39:47The American one, if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.
39:53Likewise, despite the controversies of the Ukraine conflict, Russia's determined resolve to change the unipolar world is widely appreciated by the global south.
40:09And Russia is also a full-fledged independent power and with enormous power of a civilizational state.
40:17Same goes with the BRICS as a whole and with ASEAN as a whole.
40:22They are, I consider also, on the way towards civilizational communities.
40:28And my fourth point is, yes, a multipolar world is there, but a multipolar world order has not yet been achieved.
40:41That's something we should try to work together.
40:44And this forum is one of these interesting initiatives.
40:50And these poles, you know, multipoles, may have differences within themselves.
40:58Yet, importantly, they all share one common objective.
41:03That is, they want to establish a multipolar world order based on peace, development, based on mutual respect, based on common prosperity.
41:16And many of them also consider themselves as civilizational states or civilizational communities.
41:22The key difference between a civilizational state and civilizational community and typical, what the Western call the nation state,
41:31is with civilizational state and community, we have deep culture and deep people.
41:38That's different.
41:39I gave an interview the other day concerning this telephone call between the U.S. and the Russian leaders.
41:47They said whether they are going to work together against China.
41:50I said, no chance, because China and Russia are civilizational states.
41:54We have deep culture and deep people.
41:56The United States, not yet.
41:58They have to work hard to achieve that.
42:00And another commonality is all these other poles and global south reject categorically the Western moral luxury or imposition of its values on them.
42:15And indeed, you know, I remember the former EU foreign, what's called the senior foreign minister, diplomatic representative, Joseph Borrell,
42:32he said this time last year, he said almost everyone in the non-Western world, in the global south, thinks now that there are credible alternatives to the West, not only economically, but also technologically, militarily and ideologically.
42:54And this is very important.
42:56In other words, this unipolarity, this unipolar world order is based on these four pillars, technology, military, ideology and economics.
43:06But even an EU foreign policy representative consider these four pillars have been shaken.
43:13So this is important.
43:15He admits this fact, which is true.
43:18And finally, I want to use, in order to build up this multipolar world order, I just share with you one quick example of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.
43:32Basically, it's the today world's largest platform or common good for development and cooperation.
43:42We're already over 150 countries participating, over close to 5,000 projects going on.
43:50And I think with this, we can see both hard power and soft power from China as a civilizational state.
43:59In terms of hard power, we can provide what we call total solution for industrialization.
44:05For instance, we can build up the total solution to chemical industry for quite a few countries participating in BRI.
44:13Within two years, a complete industrial sector, petrochemical energy.
44:18Same with today, renewable energies, EVs and many other sectors.
44:23With soft power, I mentioned already, we believe in unite and prosper, not divide and rule.
44:29We believe in shared future for mankind, not at the table or on the menu.
44:35And we also believe the key philosophy in the BRI initiative, why it can extend and spread so fast.
44:43The key philosophy behind this BRI is discussing together, building together, benefiting together.
44:52You join the initiative out of your own interest, not someone impose that on you.
44:59So that has even worked out better.
45:01In the end, I said, this has created what I call a win-win cooperative multipolar world order.
45:12Or at least, lay a foundation for the new what we envisage, a multipolar world order.
45:19So thank you very much for your patience.
45:31And this was another episode of China Now.
45:33A show that opens a window to the present and the future of the iShangYai.
45:36And hope you enjoy it and see you next time.
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