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00:08Hello, Telesur English presents a new episode of China Now, a Wave Media's production that
00:13showcases the culture, technology and politics of the Asian giant. In this first segment,
00:19China Courants take a deep dive into the week's top stories, from a great turning of tables
00:24in telecom tech to a booming business for Chinese chip makers and much more. Let's see.
00:37And welcome to China Courants. Today, a generational reunion between a Chinese and American family,
00:42a great turning of tables in telecom tech, a booming business for Chinese chip makers,
00:47and continued trade talks with the EU. Let's begin. 84 years ago, a Chinese girl watched her
00:54family risk their lives to save an American airman. Today, at 94, she meets that airman's granddaughter.
01:00The reunion took place in Shangrao, Jiangxi province, where Timothy Sims traveled to meet
01:04Guan Dongxiang, whose family helped save Timothy's grandfather during World War II. When they met,
01:10Sims knelt down to thank her. The story begins in April 1942, when the United States launched the
01:17Doolittle Raid, a surprise air attack on Japan. During the mission, several American bomber crews
01:22ran low on fuel and were forced to bail out or crash land in China. One of them was the
01:27crew of
01:27aircraft number 14, which came down near Guangfeng, which is now Shangrao. Guan Dongxiang was just nine
01:34years old. She witnessed her father, Guan Wenqing, and other local villagers shelter the American airman
01:40at the risk of retaliation from Japanese forces, at a time when they were actively invading and
01:44devastating communities across China. After the Doolittle Raid, Japanese forces launched a brutal
01:50campaign across eastern China, including the areas where the airman had received help.
01:55The Chinese civilians paid a terrible price. The airman survived and eventually returned to the
02:00United States, but the story of the people who saved him stayed with his family. Now, more than
02:06eight decades later, his granddaughter has made the journey to find the Chinese family who helped
02:11them come home. The girl who witnessed that rescue is now 94 years old. The airman she remembers is
02:17gone, but his family remembered and has carried his gratitude across generations. Now to business.
02:22In 2001, Huawei began purchasing patent licenses from Qualcomm. 25 years later, now in 2026,
02:29the tables have turned. It is now Qualcomm that has just signed an agreement to buy patents from
02:34Huawei. This deal would be hard to imagine only a few years back and signals all you need to know
02:39about
02:39how far China's telecom industry has come. On October 5th, Huawei and Qualcomm announced a new
02:45multi-year patent cross-licensing agreement covering 5G, computing, artificial intelligence,
02:51and networking technologies. Qualcomm will also purchase patents held by Huawei in the United States.
02:56The companies have not disclosed the full financial details. To understand why this matters,
03:01you need to understand how patents shape the phone business. Every time your phone connects to a
03:05mobile network, it relies on technologies built around global technical standards. Some of those
03:10technologies are protected by patents that companies must license to use, which are something called
03:15standard essential patents. Qualcomm built up a large portfolio of mobile communications patents over
03:21decades. For phone makers, that means that when you're building devices, you have to pay Qualcomm for
03:26the patented technologies that are used in the phone. The licensing fees are a major part of the
03:32business, and in China, those payments are often called the Qualcomm tax. Huawei knows that cost well.
03:38According to 2019 figures from the company, it had paid more than $6 billion in patent royalties since
03:44the signing of its first licensing agreement in 2001. Nearly 80% of that money went to US businesses.
03:52But Huawei wasn't content to remain on the paying side of the equation. It invested heavily in research,
03:58developed its own technologies, and worked to get them adopted into international standards.
04:02One important example is polar codes, a technology first proposed in 2009 by Turkish researcher Erdal
04:09Arikant. After years of engineering work, his theory was turned into practical communications technology
04:14by Huawei, who invested in the technology and pushed for its adoption through 3GPP, the international
04:20organization for mobile communication standards. In 2016, polar codes were selected for the control channel
04:27for 5G. That mattered because contributing technology to a global standard can give a company not only
04:34a technical advantage, but also patents that other companies may need to license.
04:39Huawei has continued to invest heavily in research. Over the past decade, its cumulative R&D spending has
04:45exceeded 1.38 trillion yuan, and by the end of 2025, the company held more than 165,000 active granted
04:53patents, according to their own figures. By 2021, Huawei became a net recipient of patent licensing revenue
05:01for the first time, meaning that it was earning more from licensing than it was paying out.
05:06And Huawei has become a major player in the 5G patent landscape. A 2025 report by patent analytics firm
05:12patently estimated that Huawei accounted for about 15% of the 5G standard essential patent families
05:18in its analysis ahead of Qualcomm, which accounted for around 9.8%. The agreement announced this month
05:25between Huawei and Qualcomm is a significant marker. After decades of research, engineering, and work,
05:31Chinese technology is now moving from the buyer side of the global patent market to the negotiating table
05:35as a patent holder in its own right. Staying within the business realm, China's car exports are
05:41growing so fast that there are not enough ships to carry them, and Chinese shipyards are filling that
05:46gap. According to Clarkson's research, from January to August, Chinese shipyards won nearly 97% of
05:53worldwide orders for new car carriers. This is a dramatic turnaround. After ship owners ordered more than 70
06:00vessels a year in 2023 and 2024, fears of oversupply pushed orders down to just 9 last year. Now the
06:08market
06:08is recovering and Chinese shipyards are capturing almost all of the new business. These ships are
06:13called pure car and truck carriers, or PCTCs. With multiple decks and ramps, they work like floating
06:19parking garages. The largest can carry more than 10,000 vehicles on a single voyage. The demand is
06:25being driven by China's growing car exports. In the first half of 2026, China shipped 5.1 million vehicles
06:32overseas, up 65% from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
06:38For years, Chinese automakers depended on foreign shipping companies to get those vehicles abroad.
06:43When freight rates climbed and ships became harder to book, transport became an obstacle to overseas
06:49expansion. Now, Chinese automakers and shipping companies are looking to secure more of that
06:54capacity themselves. On September 23rd, SAIC Anji Logistics, the shipping arm of SAIC Motor, opened a tender for
07:03two LNG-powered car carriers. Each will carry 11,000 vehicles, with the first scheduled for delivery
07:09before September 2029. BYD is also looking to expand its shipping fleet. Tradewinds has reported that BYD,
07:17SAIC Anji Logistics, and Costco shipping specialized carriers are discussing a fleet of around 20 ships
07:23worth an estimated $2.5 billion. The companies have not confirmed that figure as a finalized order.
07:30BYD is reportedly considering smaller vessels carrying between 8,600 to 9,200 cars.
07:36And the buyers aren't all Chinese. According to South Korea's Chosun Biz, the European shipping
07:41companies signed 33 car carriers contracts with Chinese shipyards this year. Italy's Grimaldi Group alone
07:48ordered 12 vessels. Even ship owners that have traditionally relied on South Korean builders are
07:53turning to China. Israeli operator Ray Car Carriers, for example, ordered 10 vessels from a Chinese
07:59shipyard after years of placing orders with South Korean yards, according to industry reports.
08:04And so, why are Chinese shipyards winning so much of this business? One reason is scale. Chinese builders
08:10now have the capacity to produce car carriers in large numbers, while South Korean yards have been
08:15focusing more on higher-value vessels, including LNG carriers. For Chinese automakers, having more
08:21control over shipping means less exposure to rising freight rates and vessel shortages. Selling millions
08:26of cars overseas takes more than competitive vehicles. It also takes a reliable way to get them to
08:31customers. And China is now building both. Cars are also at the center of China's latest round of trade
08:37talks with the EU. China and the European Union are trying to work through some major trade disputes,
08:42and this time two key issues are on the table—Chinese hybrid cars and rare earths. At trade talks in
08:48Beijing on October 8th and 9th, the two sides reached 16 areas of agreement. For China, a key goal is
08:54to
08:54secure more stable access to the European market while making sure Chinese companies are not singled out
09:00for tougher treatment. Take cars, for example. After the EU imposed extra tariffs on Chinese-made electric
09:07vehicles in 2024, Chinese automakers expanded their hybrid exports to Europe. EU imports of Chinese
09:13hybrids jumped from more than 100,000 vehicles in 2024 to more than 300,000 in 2025. Now, China and
09:21the EU
09:22are working on a new arrangement for hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars. Beijing says any quota must follow WTO
09:28rules, leave room for exports to grow from 2025 levels, and give Chinese vehicles treatment no less
09:34favorable than imports from other countries. China has also kept open the option of challenging unfair
09:40measures through the WTO. Rare earths are another part of the discussion. China will keep a fast-track
09:46licensing channel for European companies importing rare earths and permanent magnets. In return, the EU
09:51will help Chinese companies secure licenses for sensitive dual-use products. Both sides want more
09:56certainty for businesses that depend on these materials and markets. But other disputes are still on the table,
10:01including EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, foreign subsidy rules, and access to each other's
10:07markets. China and the EU have agreed to keep talking about these issues, along with tariffs and
10:12market access for products such as medical devices, cosmetics, and agricultural goods. The EU continues to
10:18point to its trade deficit with China, which approached 360 billion euros in 2025. Beijing argues that trade
10:26imbalances should not be used to justify restrictions targeting Chinese products. Any solution, China says,
10:31must follow international trade rules. The latest understandings are not a final deal and many
10:36details still need to be worked out. The two sides plan to meet again in March 2027.
10:42And those are our stories for this week.
10:44Thanks for watching China Currents. We'll see you next time.
10:54We have a short break now, but don't go away because we'll be right back.
11:08Welcome back to China Now. In this second segment, Thinkers Forum welcomes George Galdawei, British
11:14politician, broadcaster, and writer who will address the fall of the West and the rebirth of the East,
11:21doing a master class at the Fudan International Summer School of Sirpa. Additionally, top picks
11:27will analyze how an unusual scene unfolded in Washington as President Trump personally went
11:32to the airport to welcome visiting President Xi Jinping late September, breaking nearly six decades
11:38of US protocols. Let's have a look.
11:57I'm not used to speaking to such a hungry audience because in parliament nobody is hungry.
12:07In fact, they're all distinctly overfed. Not as well educated. I, as is implied in my biography,
12:18I see I'm not an academic, but I make no apology for that. When I see the mess the more
12:27academically
12:28qualified have made of my country, I'm glad that I left school at 16 to become a factory worker.
12:37in the Michelin tire factory, which increasingly towards the end of my parliamentary time,
12:44made me an unusual bird. I used to lecture them that I was the only person in the parliamentary chamber
12:56who could make a ZX radial tire, and that most of them couldn't even change one if they had a
13:05puncture
13:05by the side of the road. The embourgeoisification of the British parliament was such a phenomenon in my time
13:16that I can't separate it from the political degeneration that I experienced. When I entered parliament in the 1980s,
13:29and I left two years ago, so I was a member across five decades, seven times elected. But when I
13:39was first elected in the 1980s,
13:42the British parliament was full of people who, whether you agreed with them or not,
13:48were people of achievement. They had been military officers in the Second World War. They had military
13:59decorations, or they were dynamic entrepreneurs, or great trade union leaders, or they had run
14:09vast local authorities in their municipal political careers.
14:16But by the time I left two years ago, the political class had shrunk very, very considerably. And how that
14:27happened, why that happened, is worth looking at. Long before any of you were born, and I include your
14:33teachers, there was a great movie star called Greta Garbo. And somebody said to her once,
14:42you were once big in pictures. She said, I'm still big. It's the pictures that got small.
14:51And it's the politics that got small. And I saw it happen from the 1980s until 2024. I saw it
15:02happen
15:03that the death of ideology killed British parliamentary politics.
15:11What had once been a clash of ideas, philosophies even. Don't forget that when I entered parliament,
15:20there were scores of people like me, who thought like me, who supported China, who supported the Soviet
15:29Union, who supported the socialist idea. There were scores of us. And by the end,
15:37I think maybe there was two, but perhaps three. So, the death of ideology.
15:46The conservatives are no longer conservative.
15:52Labor is no longer labor.
15:54Labor and the liberal Democrats are neither liberal nor democratic.
16:01They have fused into one, three cheeks of the same backside.
16:08And we don't expect anything nice or good to come from that. I said in an interview an hour or
16:17two ago,
16:18that if you could distill the process that I'm describing into a human form, that human would be Tony Blair.
16:31Tony Blair has been in power in Britain from 1997 until today.
16:40Every prime minister that we have had,
16:43whether thinner or fatter, richer or poorer, has been a facsimile of the world view
16:54and the approach to political life of Tony Blair. I say richer, he's actually become worth several hundred million pounds.
17:05So, he would class himself as one of the richer now. But he wasn't when he began.
17:11But I could see that his purpose, like Clinton in the Democrats, was to slay the sacred cows, slay the
17:24shibboleths, slay the mantras of his side of the political fence.
17:32And he succeeded very much in doing so. And so, people talk about Margaret Thatcher,
17:40who was the prime minister when I entered Parliament, having dominated the political scene ever since.
17:48But I would contend that Tony Blair's reign has been much longer.
17:55And so, how does this relate to my subject this evening?
18:11Well, of course, the sensible answer is no.
18:17You could have two sons, politically speaking.
18:21Or you could draw closer to the people and places where the sun is risen.
18:28You could follow the sun and seek to warm yourself, nourish yourself from it.
18:36But we have taken the approach of King Canute.
18:41And I need to do some historical revisionism, professor.
18:45Because King Canute has a very bad name as being the man who went to the beach and ordered the
18:54waves to halt.
18:55As a matter of fact, he was doing that to prove to the fools that the king was not almighty,
19:04not divine, and could not stop the waves.
19:08But he's entered history for the wrong reason.
19:12But it's the approach of trying to stop the rising of the sun that we have taken.
19:21Instead of drawing closer, offering that which we still have, and we still have.
19:29I'm not one of these who rubbishes my own country, my own culture.
19:36Professor knows from his Oxford Times.
19:39Cambridge, I beg your pardon.
19:43A cardinal error.
19:45I'm very sorry.
19:47I've actually a long favoured Cambridge for reasons which you know about.
19:51I was in a barber here in Shanghai a couple of hours ago.
19:57And on the wall, there's a picture of the Beatles.
20:02Still astride the global cultural panoply.
20:08Today, we made great things.
20:13We were the first of the countries of the Industrial Revolution.
20:21We were making great ships of steel when, forgive me, Ben, the Americans were still cowboys,
20:29riding the range, murdering the natives, enslaving the Africans.
20:40We made the Rolls Royce.
20:41We made the Mini.
20:42We made many, many things.
20:44We have intellectual property in our countries that could have been useful
20:52to the places in the world where the sun was rising.
20:56We could have sold them goods, could have sold them services.
21:01We could have made ourselves a friend.
21:04We could have made ourselves an assistance to what would then be a global development
21:13of productive capacity, prosperity, harmony.
21:17But we chose the opposite.
21:20We chose to be King Canute.
21:23And that wrecking role is potentially fatal for all of us.
21:32These are dark times.
21:34The sun's rising here, so maybe it doesn't look so dark.
21:38But for those of us whose mind is usually elsewhere,
21:42I have to tell you that these are amongst the darkest days,
21:46days, literally days, in human history.
21:52The NATO summit in Istanbul was filled with such dark portents as to be almost Shakespearean.
22:05The sight of Trump metamorphosing back into factory reset mode.
22:16The Trump who said he was to be the peace president.
22:19The Trump who really felt he had the right to the Nobel Peace Prize.
22:24He has declared war on the world in Istanbul and began war again in the Persian Gulf,
22:34which is raging again this evening with unprecedented ferocity as civilian infrastructure,
22:43including energy infrastructure, is being laid waste, and presumably responded to.
22:52The results of which we are simply not allowed to see they are censored in the land of the free,
23:00in the lands of liberty and free speech.
23:04Remember all the tropes that they used for decades, that dissidents had come from the east to the west
23:15in order to be free to speak.
23:18Well, I'm now a dissident that's had to come from the west to the east in order to be free
23:25to speak.
23:26And we have no knowledge at all of the impact effect of the Persian counterfire from Iran.
23:35But we can assume from what we know from the Ramadan War and from the war last year,
23:44that the Iranians haven't lost their shooting boots, that they haven't lost their ability to take a heavy toll.
23:53And so we're now on an escalatory ladder of war with Iran, one part of which is aimed at you
24:05here in China.
24:08I'm sure that's widely known. If it isn't, it ought to be.
24:13They didn't pick Venezuela and pick Iran as their last two targets
24:21without being mindful of the significance of that for China.
24:27And this escalatory ladder can lead all the way to the top or should I say the bottom
24:37because it is a truism that is sometimes forgotten in relation to Ukraine,
24:45but it applies also to the Persian Gulf that no nuclear armed power can allow itself to be defeated
24:56in a conventional war. This is a logical and should be obvious point. As soon as the nuclear armed power
25:09is losing a conventional war, it must ineluctably escalate to the use of nuclear weapons.
25:19Now, Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons.
25:23Foolishly in my view, as I have said for many years,
25:28if I was being confronted by not one but two nuclear armed powers,
25:32I definitely would get myself nuclear weapons. But Iran does not have them. But Israel has hundreds of
25:41them. And therefore, the danger of nuclear war in the Persian Gulf, with all that that entails,
25:50not just to the people of the region, the resources of the region, the population flow that would
25:59inevitably result amongst survivors. Don't forget, most of the people who live in the Gulf are not
26:07Arab sheikhs and kings. They are Asian people, South Asian people, in their millions, in fact,
26:17who will have to be on the move in the midst of an escalation like I'm talking about.
26:24And they won't be moving back to Calcutta. They'll be moving to Europe and will accentuate
26:34many of the social and economic problems that are present now in Europe on that front and are fueling
26:44the rise of right-wing white nationalism in European politics. But that wasn't the only
26:56dark sign from Istanbul. Trump signaled he may not have meant it because he doesn't always mean what he
27:06says. And he doesn't always remember what he says. In fact, very often doesn't remember what he says.
27:16Or he maybe hopes that we don't remember what he said. But he floated two ideas that are pregnant with
27:27with direct involvement of the United States in the NATO war against Russia over the bodies of hundreds of
27:38thousands of Ukrainians. The first and most dangerous of which was that he would look at closing the skies
27:49the skies over Ukraine. A no-fly zone, an American no-fly zone on the border of Russia imposed by
28:02the main
28:03NATO power. When the entire war is about the encroachment of NATO towards the borders of Russia in defiance of
28:19solemn and binding commitments made by the George Bush I administration in the form of James Baker,
28:28Russia that if Russia agreed to leave the eastern part of Germany, NATO would not expand, and I quote, one
28:40inch to the east.
28:45Gorbachev being an idiot didn't actually get that in a treaty form before complying with the demand.
28:55And therefore the United States finds it easier than it should to elide that point. But the memoirs of James
29:06Baker, his Secretary of State, who made the commitment, are very clear about it. A no-fly zone? Does anybody
29:19in here
29:20think Russia will comply with the U.S. imposed no-fly zone in a war zone that they control at
29:32least 20 percent of the territory in question?
29:36Getting on now for 25 percent. This is a recipe for World War III.
29:44This is a recipe for American jets being shot down by Russian fire or Russian jets being shot down by
29:54American fire.
29:56Triggering this dread situation that I tried to describe a moment ago. Nuclear armed powers cannot allow
30:07allow themselves to be defeated in a conventional war. They must escalate until they are deploying
30:19the most formidable weapons at their disposal. The second thing that he said was that he was going to
30:30license Ukrainian enterprise to produce American weapons. Weapons of a defensive characteristic like the Patriot, but also
30:48cruise weapons, cruise missiles of enormous offensive power.
30:56The unspoken point being that only long-range attacks on Russia with the best weapons available
31:09will bring about a peace between the belligerents. But of course, the opposite is true.
31:18First of all, Russia will do everything that it can to destroy any factories or shipments
31:28that would facilitate such a development. And secondly, if they were to come to pass and to be in operation,
31:39the Russians would face this dilemma that I'm talking about.
31:44They would be being confronted with conventional weapons that were inflicting strategic damage
31:52on their population, their economy, their infrastructure, their civilian society, and could not
32:03but escalate the conflict to try and head it off at the pass.
32:10And that wasn't the only dark sign at Istanbul. The third was his
32:23rededication of his love of Benjamin Netanyahu and President Erdogan of Turkey.
32:34The fact that Netanyahu hates Erdogan and Erdogan has to pretend to hate Netanyahu
32:46was, of course, above the head of Donald Trump.
32:50Donald Trump expressed his love for both these men and his determination that the unbreakable
33:02alliance, ironclad, he said, between the United States and Israel was unaffected by any reported
33:13squalls between Netanyahu and him. And although Donald Trump doesn't often tell the truth on this,
33:23I believe him. The special relationship between Israel and the United States has now reached
33:33what I hope is the apogee, maybe there's more to come, that the military of Israel and the United States
33:43are
33:44effectively to merge in a new piece of legislation in front of the Congress, virtually certain to pass.
33:56Thus, Netanyahu can say, I no longer want military aid from the United States, because once this legislation
34:07is passed, he will have a key to the safe. He doesn't need any more checks. He can just draw
34:16down
34:17from the US military budget that which Israel requires to maintain its long hegemony in the Middle East and
34:28its repression against its captive population, namely the Palestinians and its allies and enemies,
34:41if there are any left across the Arab world. It holds them in a kind of vacillage. And this will
34:51be
34:52facilitated with this new relationship underscored by Donald Trump. Now, of course, when it comes to
35:01China, there's a major problem. The countries that hate China's rise are the same countries that need
35:13China. And the best example I can give you of that is a man you've probably already forgotten, Keir Starmer.
35:25But first, I need to tell you that in September of last year, my good wife and I were stopped
35:34by the
35:35anti-terrorism police at London airport. Me, seven times elected member of parliament across five decades,
35:47one of the best known people in the country, the leader of a British political party with hundreds of
35:56thousands of votes and thousands of members was held by the police at gunpoint for hours, four hours in my
36:08case,
36:09five hours in her case. Mind you, she was the more serious case because she has one of her fingernails
36:16and she was painted in the Palestinian flag, which was, of course, a very dangerous sign of terrorism
36:24for the British police force. My point being this, what did they interrogate me on for that four hours?
36:34Well, fully one third of the interrogation was about China,
36:40China, about China, the threat, China, the danger, China, the subverter of British democracy.
36:53China, which had built, they said, a super embassy in London. What were they intending using it for?
37:03Would there be a war? Would there be a dungeon? Was it to be a secret police station?
37:11Does China have spies in the British Parliament? Has China bugged the House of Commons?
37:22Don't laugh. This is the kind of questions to which I was subjected. I was interrogated by Keir Starmer's
37:34police force. Imagine my surprise, therefore, after having fled for my safety to Shanghai,
37:43to see with my own eyes the same Keir Starmer standing in front of me in Shanghai, having come to
37:53China,
37:54not to follow me or look for me, but having come to China with a begging bowl,
38:01seeking a strategic partnership with the same China that his police were accusing of being involved in
38:12wholesale hostile acts against the United Kingdom. And this is true in every European country.
38:20These countries need China. They need Chinese investment. They need the Chinese market.
38:28They need Chinese expertise. But at the same time, they hate and fear China. So they must develop a schizophrenia
38:39because they can't accept that the sun has risen and they can't accept that their 500 years
38:50of European, let's be frank, white European hegemony has come to an end.
39:02Recently, an unusual scene unfolded in Washington. US President Trump personally went to the airport
39:09to welcome visiting President Xi Jinping. This broke nearly six decades of US protocol for receiving foreign
39:16heads of state. The last person to receive such treatment was a visiting Pope. And before that,
39:22one would have to go all the way back to the Kennedy era. French media offered a rather scathing post
39:27-event
39:28commentary. Trump isn't ignorant of protocol. He simply believes some people such as Macron aren't
39:35worthy of it. This is the same Trump who, during his first term, waged all-out trade and technology
39:42wars against China, with flip-flopping being as common as daily routine. This time, however, he extended
39:48the highest level of hospitality seen in nearly six decades. Why did he make this about-face?
39:54How does the constructive US-China strategic stability relationship, based on respect, fairness,
40:01and reciprocity, established by both sides differ from previous arrangements? Professor Wang Xiangsu,
40:07a Chinese strategist and deputy secretary general of the CIDIC Reform and Development Research Foundation,
40:13pointed out that the constructive US-China strategic stability relationship, based on respect, fairness,
40:20and reciprocity, established during this visit, rests entirely on the four words, mutual consensus.
40:27Whereas the past, new type of major country relationship was a unilateral expectation on China's part,
40:33government. This time, the US has truly committed to it in earnest. As for how this consensus came
40:38about, Wang Xiangshui cut to the chase. It wasn't that Trump suddenly became a better person. Rather,
40:44China used its strength and determination to gradually set his behavior straight. To understand this shift,
40:51we must first examine how Trump misjudged the situation during his first term. Back then,
40:57he was convinced that, as long as the US took action, it could limit China's development to a low
41:02level where it could not challenge the US consequently, he launched wave after wave of trade and technology
41:08wars. In reality, however, China's national strength has undergone a tremendous transformation,
41:13and it has become a strategic rival on equal footing with the US possessing comparable capabilities.
41:20This time, Trump has truly witnessed this transformation in China. One detail is worth noting,
41:26Senator Rubio, once the most anti-China figure and a target of Chinese sanctions,
41:31has now publicly stated that China is the world's most important major power,
41:36and that it is unthinkable not to engage with such a power or establish normal relations with it.
41:41The fact that even Washington's most hardline anti-China figures have changed their tune indicates
41:46that the notion that China's strength deserves respect has become a consensus among us decision.
41:53Makers, but what truly made Trump hold back was, in fact, the respect China earned through repeated
41:59confrontation. During the trade war, when he threatened to raise tariffs to extremely high rates,
42:05China responded with reciprocal countermeasures, making its stance crystal clear,
42:09if you want to fight, we'll see it through to the end. After several rounds of confrontation,
42:15the Americans discerned two key points. First, China is not afraid of competition,
42:20and is a capable equal adversary. Second, China is courteous, powerful, and measured. Even when
42:27holding the upper hand, it does not make exorbitant demands, but only fights for what it must secure.
42:34U.S. Vice President Vance once remarked that China, as an adversary, has performed well.
42:39Wang Xiangsu noted that this is akin to a chess match. Both sides are world-class masters with
42:45comparable skill levels. More importantly, it is the composure displayed during the contest,
42:50requiring not only skill but also poise that earns your opponents genuine respect.
42:55As for Trump's considerations based on personal political needs and other factors,
43:00these are secondary. This strength, which has finally been recognized, also means that the new
43:06proposals put forward by the U.S. carry far more weight than its previous verbal statement. The new
43:11type of major country relationship is an old phrase from many years ago, but ultimately it represented
43:17a unilateral expectation on China's part one that the U.S. did not necessarily share. As for a
43:24constructive strategic stability relationship based on respect, fairness, and equality, China had actually
43:31raised this during Trump's previous visit to China, this time in Washington. With the two heads of state
43:37face to face, they formalized it as a consensus. This consensus is not merely empty rhetoric. Respect,
43:44as reflected in protocol, manifested in a warm welcome unprecedented in 60 years. Equality was
43:51evident in the mutual consideration of concerns, with issues such as the drug problem, a priority for
43:57the U.S. and the arms embargo on Taiwan, a priority for China, being discussed on an equal footing. Furthermore,
44:04what was particularly noteworthy was the candor in the two leaders' remarks. Whereas in the past, both sides
44:11tended to speak past one another, this time they finally found common ground. President Xi stated
44:17directly that both China and the U.S. do not shy away from competition, but that competition must be
44:23constructive and have boundaries. It should be a race where both sides strive to catch up with one another, not
44:29a
44:29zero-sum game, where one side loses and the other wins. The bottom line of competition is no conflict
44:35and no confrontation. Wang Xiangzui pointed out that this has already risen to the level of political
44:39philosophy, namely the pursuit of the unity of opposites and competitive coexistence. With this new
44:46relationship as a foundation, the specific provisions in the eight-point consensus become even more
44:51thought. During this visit, China and the U.S. agreed to support each other in successfully hosting
44:57diplomatic events on their respective home turf. This implies that the top leaders of both countries
45:02will meet four times within a year, and this unprecedented frequency of diplomatic engagement
45:08is undoubtedly beneficial to global stability. The most significant provision in the eight-point
45:13consensus is that both sides reaffirmed the historical memory of their alliance during World War II.
45:18Just days before President Xi's visit, the Japanese Prime Minister had visited the White House
45:23during the United Nations General Assembly, attempting to elevate the Japan-use alliance-above-us-China
45:29relations. Yet during World War II, the United States and China were allies primarily in the fight
45:36against Japanese fascism. Supply bringing this history to the forefront effectively serves as a clear
45:42warning to those who seek to borrow the tiger's might to intimidate others and retrace old paths.
45:48Coupled with the two sides' shared positions on the Iranian nuclear issue and tolls on international
45:53waterways. What lies behind this is, more importantly, its exemplary significance. When China and the U.S.
45:59reach consensus on global issues, it helps prevent further deterioration and propels matters in a
46:05positive direction. This may well become a new model for resolving conflictical challenges. However,
46:12having dealt with Trump for so many years, even with such impressive results before our eyes,
46:17any level-headed observer cannot help but ask how long will we honour this agreement.
46:23First, let's take a look at Trump's track record of trustworthiness. After his last visit to China,
46:29the atmosphere was so positive that some international media outlets claimed China and the U.S. are entering a
46:36honeymoon period. Only for Trump to launch a trade war the moment he returned to the U.S. in the
46:41minds of many,
46:41breaking his word is the norm for him before his plane has even touched down. He'll post a tweet on
46:47Twitter, rendering his previous statements null and void. We cannot pin our hopes on Trump's credibility
46:53improving, as asking for the moon and settling for a fraction has already become his philosophy of
46:59negotiation. Fortunately, China has grown accustomed to Trump's tactics. If you greet us with a smile,
47:05we'll respond in kind. But if you want to start a fight, we'll be more than happy to play along.
47:10There's a telling detail this time after the trade war ceasefire, China proposed a one-year extension,
47:16but ultimately only secured a six-month agreement from September to January. This time frame is
47:22actually very short, which shows that Trump was never prepared to hold off on taking action for
47:26the long term. He still treats the trade war as a bargaining chip he can pull out at any moment.
47:32But viewed from another angle, this is precisely where the change lies. Trump is no longer in a ready
47:38to strike tomorrow mindset. Instead, he has publicly agreed to a ceasefire period and is prepared to
47:44abide by the rules for these six months. Therefore, we must also recognize that he is making an effort
47:49to enhance his credibility. Wang Shang-Su's assessment of this situation is quite measured. He points out
47:55that Trump has transformed from a true villain into a minor gentleman or short-term gentleman. However,
48:01this does not mean he has undergone a complete transformation. Rather, China has used its
48:06strength and resolved to constrain and even correct Trump's governance. You cannot change your mind on
48:12a whim. You must keep your word. Even if it's only six months of keeping his word, it's still keeping
48:17his
48:18word. This visit can be described as a milestone in US-China relations. Professor Wang Shang-Su shared a story
48:25told by a veteran diplomat. Back when Jiang Zemin's visit to the US was being arranged, during working
48:31level discussions with the American side, the Americans presented two baskets, one for economic
48:37issues and one for political issues. They indicated that while their leader was welcome to visit,
48:42the visit would only be considered finalized once both baskets were filled with their concern.
48:47That reflected the mindset of a supreme empire waiting for others to pay their respects.
48:53Today, however, the United States has extended the highest level reception in nearly six decades.
48:59The progress made in bridging this gap has been achieved step by step through China's strength.
49:05Furthermore, regardless of whether the next US President is a Democrat or a Republican high-level
49:10exchanges between China and the United States will most likely take place against a backdrop of mutual
49:17respect and fairness and equality and will not return to the era when Blinken dealt with
49:22China from a position of US superiority.
49:30And this was another episode of China Now, a show that opens a window to the present and
49:34future of the Asian giant. Hope you enjoyed it. See you next time.
49:46See you next time.
49:47You