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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.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, Telusor English presents a new episode of China Now, a Wave Media's production that
00:08showcases the culture, technology and politics of the Asian giant.
00:12In this first segment, China Currents dives into the top stories of the week, including
00:17the over 50 billions that China decided to invest for African development and bilateral
00:23agreements that were reached by Russia and China, among other topics.
00:27Let's see.
00:38China Currents is a weekly news talk show from China to the world.
00:41We cover viral news about China every week and also give you the newest updates on China's
00:47cutting edge technologies.
00:49Let's get started.
00:58Welcome to China Currents, your weekly news report on what's happening in China.
01:03I'm Lisa.
01:04In this episode, Ukrainian diplomat provoked both China and the United States with one
01:09sentence.
01:11China decided to invest over $50 billion to support Africa's development.
01:17Russia achieved 292 agreement worth US$61 billion with China.
01:23The leader of US and UK intelligence agency claimed China poses a real danger to the global
01:30order.
01:31Let's start with Ukraine.
01:33On the 3rd of September, Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Sergei Kosansky made a highly controversial
01:40visit to Japan's Yasukuni Shrine.
01:43The Ukrainian embassy in Japan stated the visit was to pay tribute to the martyrs who
01:49sacrificed for their country.
01:51This statement was immediately busted by China's official media, which criticized Ukraine for
01:58affronting the people of China and other Asian countries.
02:02It is important to know that Yasukuni Shrine honors several Class A war criminals.
02:07Those responsible for planning and executing the war of aggression against China and the
02:13U.S. and many other Southeast countries during World War II.
02:17Among them, Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander of the Pearl Harbor attack, Masaharu Homma,
02:24who orchestrated the Baton Des March that slaughtered 75,000 American and Philippine
02:30prisoners of war, Iwana Matsui, who was responsible for the Nanking Massacre that killed 300,000
02:37Chinese civilians.
02:39Regarding the act of visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, CNN once pointed out that not only
02:44would it complicate relations between Japan and its neighbors, but also with its most
02:50important ally, the U.S.
02:52The wars they waged resulted in the deaths of an estimated 35 million soldiers and civilians
02:58in China alone, with another 4 million lives lost in the Pacific.
03:03These Japanese leaders were tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and executed
03:09for their war crimes.
03:11Yet today, these same individuals are referred to as martyrs by the Ukrainian embassy.
03:17And this sparked outrage in China, particularly among regions that were formerly occupied
03:22by Japan.
03:24Chinese society is angry but also feels sorry for the United States.
03:28As of May 2024, the U.S. has provided nearly US$175 billion in aid and military assistance
03:36to Ukraine.
03:37Yet Ukraine paid tribute to war criminals who attacked the U.S. and massacred American
03:43prisoners of war.
03:44This has left many wondering, what message is Ukraine sending to its biggest supporter?
03:50The Ukrainian embassy also seems to forget the fact that Japanese forces once killed
03:55many Ukrainians.
03:57In 1939, Japan launched an attack on the Soviet Union, and even used chemical weapons such
04:02as mustard gas, resulting in more than 9,000 killed and 15,000 injured, many of whom were
04:09Ukrainians serving in the Red Army.
04:13Estimates suggest around 7 million Ukrainian citizens fought in the Soviet forces during
04:18the World War II, accounting for approximately 23% of the total number of the armed force
04:24of the USSR.
04:26Some Soviet soldiers who were attacked by Japanese chemical weapons could not be identified
04:31because of skin ulcers.
04:33This made it very challenging for us to verify how many Soviet soldiers from Ukraine were
04:39sacrificed in Siberia.
04:41For China, the date of this visit was particularly provoking.
04:45September 3rd marked the anniversary of China's victory over Japan in World War II, a day
04:51commemorating the end of immense suffering and loss.
04:55To see Ukraine, a country now seeking China's assistance in facilitating peace talks with
05:00Russia, honouring the war criminals responsible for such death and devastation in Asia has
05:06fueled widespread resentment.
05:09After causing great controversy, the Ukrainian embassy in Japan deleted this part of the
05:14tweet the day after the visit on September 4th.
05:17However, the post was screenshotted by many netizens.
05:21As they said, if Ukraine really wants to gain China's sympathy, then an old Chinese saying
05:27may be most appropriate.
05:29Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
05:32And if Ukraine really wants to pay tribute to the martyrs who sacrificed for their country,
05:38maybe there are more suitable places for them to visit in Moscow.
05:42Next up, let's move to the latest diplomatic achievement between China and Africa.
05:47On the 5th of September, more than 50 African leaders gathered in Beijing for the 2024 Forum
05:53on China-Africa Cooperation, or 4KIC.
05:57At the summit's opening, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a significant pledge, US$50.7
06:02billion in funding to support development initiatives across Africa over the next three
06:08years.
06:10This new financial commitment represents a 27% increase from the previous 4KIC summit
06:15in 2021.
06:17The funding will go towards 30 major infrastructure projects across the continent, three times
06:22the number pledged in 2021, aimed at creating at least 1 million jobs in Africa.
06:30Following the opening ceremony, delegations from both sides adopted the Beijing Declaration,
06:34aimed at fostering a shared future in the new era, alongside the Beijing Action Plan
06:40for 2025-2027.
06:43These initiatives signal deeper cooperation in critical sectors such as industry, agriculture,
06:49infrastructure, trade, and investment.
06:52Just two days after the summit began, tangible outcomes are already emerging.
06:57On September 8, a shipment of frozen lamb from Madagascar arrived in China's Hunan
07:03province, marking the first time China has imported lamb from an African nation.
07:08China's mutton consumption is expected to hit 5.74 million tons in 2023, and the market
07:15size has reached US$110 billion.
07:19This move will provide lucrative sales channels for African herders, and one of the best quality
07:24ingredients for Chinese tables.
07:26Senegal's President Bassaro Diomafi, co-chair of FOCAC, expressed his gratitude to China,
07:33calling the partnership an effective collaboration.
07:37Mauritania's President Mohamed Oud Gwazouani, who also chairs the African Union, hailed
07:43the China-African relationship as a leading model for South-South cooperation.
07:48However, the summit was not without controversy.
07:51Western governments and media outlets have long accused China of engaging in so-called
07:57debt-trap diplomacy, alleging that China forces African countries to exchange natural resources
08:03for infrastructure investments.
08:05A recent report from the BBC on September 7 claimed that China is often accused of murdering
08:12African nations with unsustainable debt.
08:15However, according to research by London-based think tank Chatham House, China accounts for
08:21only 12% of Africans' total private and public external debt.
08:26Experts suggest that if Africa is facing a debt crisis, attention should perhaps be directed
08:32at its largest creditor, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
08:37As discussion continues, all eyes are on the next step in this evolving China-Africa partnership,
08:43which promises significant economic impact on both continents.
08:47Stay tuned for more updates.
08:48In Asia, there are also good news from the diplomatic community.
08:52On the 3rd of September, the East Economic Forum, EECF, kicked off in Russia with more
08:58than 6,000 participants from 76 countries and regions.
09:02Almost 300 agreements worth US$61.4 billion were signed at the East Economic Forum.
09:10Advisor to Russian President and Secretary of the EECF Organizing Committee Anton Kobyakov
09:16said on Friday.
09:17Chinese Vice President Han Jin attended this forum and delivered a speech, expressing that
09:23China is committed to deepening cooperation in Northeast Asia.
09:28Member of Russian State Duma Committee on Small and Medium-Sized Business Alexei Govorin
09:34told TASS that China is keen to collaborate with Russia's technology company.
09:40He noted that China's experience in developing technology parks is particularly valuable
09:45for Russia.
09:46While China and Russia are busy creating wealth, the US and UK are busy creating wars.
09:53According to a report by CNN on September 8, CIA Director Bill Burns spoke at a joint
10:00public event with MI6 Chief Richard Moore.
10:06The pair highlighted the importance of the two countries' intelligent partnership at
10:11a time when global order is, quote, under threat.
10:14Burns accused China of offering dual-use items to Russia poses a real danger.
10:20However, there is no clear definition of what specific product for under the category of
10:26dual-use items.
10:28It is not the first time that CIA hyped a threat from China.
10:31On the 30th of January of this year, the CIA significantly ramped up efforts to collect,
10:37execute, and analyze intelligence related to China.
10:41He noted that over the past two years, the portion of the US budget allocated to China
10:46has more than doubled, and the CIA is actively recruiting more Mandarin speakers to strengthen
10:52its operation in countering China.
10:55Since Chinese soldiers also speak Mandarin, this dual-use language could pose a real danger
11:00inside the CIA.
11:02And that is all for today.
11:03Thank you for watching this episode of China Currents.
11:06If you have any thoughts or comments about our show, please reach us at the email address
11:10below.
11:11We look forward to hearing from you and see you next time.
11:14Now, we have a short break now, but we'll be right back.
11:31Stay with us.
11:45Welcome back to China Now.
11:47This week, the Thinkers Forum welcomes Biljana Vankovska from North Macedonia and Pittsburgh
11:52professor Michael Brenner to discuss the challenges of the present world.
11:56Let's see.
12:02The Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci, whose main idea about cultural hegemony is central
12:24in his philosophy.
12:26So it is exactly what the West is doing with its colonies.
12:31Brainwashing, propaganda, cultural hegemony.
12:35Oh, in my region, there is like mushrooms after the rain.
12:42Various NGOs who work on detection of fake information and malicious influences from
12:51abroad, meaning Russia and China, of course.
12:55It is an unnatural atmosphere where you are raised to stick around and see enemies instead
13:05of friends.
13:07And even a normal information about some achievement, some fabulous bridge or highway or whatever
13:17is built in China or in Africa due to China expertise and support is taken as an offense
13:26to the West that is in decline, that cannot actually maintain its own bridges and railroads.
13:33There is a lot of this soft power investment from the West to keep up this, as I said,
13:41brownships, this submissive, loyal people who would sell their soul to the devil just
13:49to earn some grants and some money to do something for a living.
13:54Politicians are usually easy to scare because they are dependent.
14:00You know, if you don't claim your legitimacy and power on the ground of voter support,
14:08public support, and you know that you owe somebody else for that position, then you
14:17are dependent and they are scary.
14:19And actually, even in our political science terminology, we invented a new word for this
14:29phenomenon, stabilitocracy, which means that the West is choosing the leaders that are
14:37obedient, that would provide stability, which means no change, no other options, only the
14:44Western agenda and narrative.
14:46If they are dishonest or corrupted or they are going to forgive them or turn a blind
14:53eye on these deals, but they would never really accept someone who speaks the truth.
15:01Mr. Orban, to be honest, is not my favorite politician because I'm a leftist and he takes
15:08a different part of the political spectrum, which is fine.
15:12But what he says about the global affairs makes sense, unlike the things that are said by the
15:24President of the EU Commission.
15:26I mean, there are two different ways of looking to the world.
15:32The same applies even maybe to Mr. Trump, but I'm not fond of him at all.
15:38But what he says, unlike his opponents on the democratic side, makes sense in terms of let's
15:46have a dialogue.
15:47Let's talk about ceasefire, about a different world.
15:51Why should we raise our children in the atmosphere of fearmongering, warmongering, Russophobia,
16:01xenophobia, various phobias?
16:05It is an unhealthy atmosphere.
16:07I mean, we should really provide a positive atmosphere for the young generations to have
16:15something to believe in, to live for, to fight for in a positive way, not militarily.
16:23What makes me feel really, really upset is the situation in Gaza.
16:30I just could not believe that during the electoral campaign that we had months ago in my country,
16:40not a single politician spoke about Gaza.
16:45Or do we have a position as Macedonia, as a state, with respect to various peace plans?
16:53The West is actually doing peace prevention.
16:58They are inciting wars because, obviously, military-industrial complex and blah, blah.
17:05War is more profitable than peace.
17:07They see things in that abnormal way, I would say, because the price is paid by ordinary people.
17:16I just can't live with the fact that over 30,000 children died so far in Gaza, that
17:25we are watching Olympic Games and having summer vacations or whatever.
17:32It is really heartbreaking.
17:35These latest developments about the assassination of the Hamas leader is
17:41exactly an example of how some forces work on prevention of peace, prevention of mediation,
17:49prevention of negotiation, of bringing the warring parties together for the sake of the people.
17:55This complex is, let's say, powerful, but not invisible.
18:01We just have to feel empathy and solidarity with the people of Gaza.
18:06Of course, the same applies to Ukrainian people.
18:09I'm not dividing them.
18:11But the fact that the Western media shows such a crocodile tear shedding over European conflict,
18:23people with white skin, blue eyes, that is racism.
18:27That is stereotyping the victims, the conflicts, that some lives matter.
18:33At my university in 1990s, we established the Balkan Peace Center at my faculty,
18:40Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje.
18:43And we enrolled the first generations of students in peace studies.
18:48And all of a sudden, it stopped.
18:50We do have a peace program.
18:53We can enroll students, but there is no interest.
18:57They are more interested in defense studies, security studies.
19:02It is a militarized mind.
19:04And when I mentioned the academia part of it, I'm talking about militarizing the academia.
19:11Academia is supposed to be a place to spread ideas about the best in the human beings and
19:20in human history and civilization, the ideas of goodness, of well-being, of care, empathy about
19:29the other.
19:30But things are really moving in a very, very bad direction.
19:36And the world is on one side on the brink of disaster.
19:42On the other side, there is a lot of possibilities, a lot of
19:47developments that bring back home.
19:50And China is always, as I made this analysis of this new initiative, let alone the Belt
19:58and Road Initiative, but also BRICS and other multilateral initiatives.
20:05You find China as a consistent player, promoting really a global agenda of a just world.
20:15I know that China pays respect very much to the UN Charter and the UN order that is
20:23enshrined in the Charter.
20:26I don't know if it's sustainable because things go too fast, but we can even improve that
20:35model because it is not quite just to all the countries.
20:41The five permanent members in the Security Council, of course, have the privilege.
20:45They can make blockades and sabotage.
20:49Gaza is an obvious victim of this situation.
20:53Nowadays, it's impossible to even intervene in a humanitarian way decently.
21:02So China, first of all, deserves all the respect for the things the country leadership did
21:12for its own people, because you can speak to the others on the ground of what you achieved
21:20at home, how you made your citizens satisfied, prosperous, optimistic youngsters who are
21:30looking forward to next things behind the hill.
21:35They want to discover things, to create the world in a better way, instead of crying over
21:41the future or maybe being recruited for a Ukrainian war.
21:46So only a country that has proven successful at home has dignity and right to talk to others
21:56and to be a good example.
21:58And then on a foreign policy field, of course, what I appreciate so much is that unlike the
22:06West, who has been intervening in my region, but then later, you know, from NATO intervention
22:13in 1999, then Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, not to mention now what's going on in Venezuela.
22:22That is the main problem.
22:24And they are prone to these medicines and quick fix.
22:29Let's do it fast and make Greece and Macedonia sit down, sign a treaty, and that's over.
22:36No, China has a long term perspective.
22:41China, in my view, is not rushing, is not having imperialistic megalomaniac ideas.
22:50It just gives a platform for all the nations to come together and to talk.
22:57I just can't understand that days ago, the new European Union chief of diplomacy,
23:05Kaya Kallas, said that she would not talk to Putin because he is a war criminal.
23:11It's her job to talk to even to bad guys, let's say.
23:15Let's put it that way.
23:16I mean, she doesn't have a problem talking to Netanyahu or to US presidents who are war
23:25criminals by default.
23:28But Mr. Putin is the main problem.
23:31It is a hypocrisy that makes people angry.
23:36So I think that diplomacy is exactly the right thing to do when things go badly, when you
23:44have to put all things around the table, all actors, regardless how bad feelings they
23:51have, because diplomacy and negotiations are the only way to come to some kind of solution.
23:58In this moment, we need, you know, it is even sad to say that ceasefire is something that
24:05we want to see badly.
24:07Ceasefire, which is not peace.
24:09Even when we talk about ceasefire, we are labeled like, aha, these guys are pro-Russian,
24:15pro-Chinese, pro-anti-NATO or anti-Western.
24:19So it is like in Orwellian world, you know, war is peace, peace is war.
24:25China, I would like to really pay respect to this latest initiative about bringing together
24:34all fractions of Palestinian organizations and leaders around the table to make them
24:42comfortable, to talk to each other, to design their future Palestinian state or to find
24:49the solution in the long run.
24:51At the same time, we witnessed Candela's opening ceremony of the Olympic Games that
24:58sent a message of cultural decadence of the West.
25:02It is what they can produce, you know, and they invited Israel to take part, but not
25:08Russia and Belarus.
25:10I don't know why.
25:12We need an honest broker, someone who doesn't have blood on its hands.
25:18China has no bloody history.
25:20China gives opportunities for cooperation without strings attached.
25:27And one last thing, what I appreciate in the current strategy, global strategy of China
25:34is having in mind, you know, various aspects of peace in the world.
25:40Ecological, civilizational, security, multilateralism and development.
25:48So these are the things that combine itself.
25:52And it is if we talk about peace as a positive peace, not only ceasefires and stop of direct
25:59violence.
26:00Then we talk about all these things together because it's hard to divide them and to separate
26:07them because, you know, economic problems are related to ecological one, to devastation
26:15of natural resources, depletion and so on and so forth.
26:20I'm not saying that we should all take the China's policy as our own, but it is a platform
26:27for dialogue.
26:28And let's talk about all these things that China already has in mind.
26:37In Britain, the issue is they talk a lot about illegal immigration and to, you know, think
26:43in terms of a nativist English nationalism or British nationalism.
26:48You know, it stems from sort of tensions over the immigration issue.
26:53But there's been, of course, a lot of legal immigration from former British colonies in
26:59Asia and Africa, in particular, India and Pakistan and Ceylon.
27:07This goes back, you know, decades.
27:10Most of them have been well integrated into British society.
27:14Almost all of them came with at least some knowledge of English.
27:17Many of them quite fluent in English.
27:20And Britain, certain areas of British public services are critically dependent on these
27:27immigrants.
27:28You look at it, particularly in the health sector, the percentage of doctors and nurses
27:34and other health professionals of South Asian ancestry is extraordinarily high.
27:42But this has, you know, has still left a residue of immigrants who are seen as somehow rivals
27:50for social status, if not for employment and jobs among Britain's less educated, working
27:58class and the best population.
28:00And this is a segment of society which is, has counterparts on the continent, all across
28:08Western Europe.
28:09These are people who feel that they, in effect, have been abandoned by the government.
28:15Why do they feel that they've been abandoned?
28:17Well, it's not mainly immigration from abroad that makes some of them very uncomfortable.
28:24And there are these elements of pure racism, if you like.
28:28But it's been the economics.
28:30And that is all across the West, economic inequality has been growing over the last
28:3720 years.
28:37In the United States, it began in the 1970s.
28:41Mean incomes for working class Americans in 2010 were no higher than they were in 1973,
28:51discounting for foreign places.
28:53And so the gap between the well off, the comfortable, at the very top, of course, the 1% or the
28:59one tenth of 1%, the billionaires who are proliferating.
29:02And those whose employment is not only less remunerative in terms of living standards
29:10because of the last wave of inflation, which were caused by first COVID, the breakdown
29:17of supply chains and then by the spike in energy prices caused by the rather self-defeating
29:25decision to dispense with energy from Russia.
29:31Has made them feel poorer, made them feel neglected.
29:34This is what has fed the kinds of free floating discontent, which has led to the rise of these
29:41far right movements, which in extreme forms, you can call neo-fascist, they're all very
29:47sort of autocratic or common characteristics, if you like.
29:52And their success in establishing themselves as significant players in electoral politics
29:59in a way, represents a regression in European public affairs and quite a serious challenge
30:09to political leadership in all of these countries.
30:12And a striking alienation, it reflects a striking alienation of the significant heart of the
30:18population from the leaders.
30:20And you can go and leadership, leaders across Europe have become quite unpopular.
30:26Macron in France was soundly rejected indirectly in the French elections.
30:36Mr. Scholz in his unstable coalition in Germany has favorable ratings for his party, the SPD,
30:46the old socialist party, something around 14%.
30:50In the polls, his party gets less support than the new far right party.
30:55Same thing has happened in the Netherlands and in Sweden.
30:59Now, in Britain, you don't have the party, you have this party led by Mr, you know, Barange,
31:07the reformist party, which is really based upon those disaffected from the conservative
31:12party, rather than workers.
31:17And this has led to a peculiar situation in Great Britain, in which the two major parties,
31:26the Conservatives and Tories, and the Labour Party are very similar in their policies and
31:33their approaches and their philosophy, with the Labour Party becoming what English commentators
31:38call a Tory light, which is just a milder version of Tory thinking and philosophy and
31:46policies, and which leads a very large segment of the populace in the electorate
31:54feeling, you know, dispossessed, if you like.
31:58And so we'll see what one of us, much as noted as Mr. Stallman's Labour Party,
32:03which in terms of seats in Parliament, won this overwhelming historic victory,
32:09received only 33% of the vote.
32:11Which was, by the way, the lowest total Labour Party has received since World War Two.
32:18And that's because of the collapse of the Conservatives.
32:22And so he has no mandate, and he has no really firm base of support under the British system.
32:30He's still had very considerable latitude in pushing his own policies, but he has no
32:36answer.
32:37And the Labour Party has no answers to Britain's ills, its economic problems.
32:43And so I think the instability in Britain will grow in the future.
32:48They have no answers.
32:50They're introduced using the same austerity policies that the Tories followed for 14 years,
32:55and which have been a complete failure.
32:58And cutting themselves off from the European Union through Brexit in 2016 has had all of
33:03the negative economic consequences which knowledgeable people predicted.
33:10And then, of course, Britain, like everywhere in the West and very pronounced United States,
33:15is you have this, you know, very unequal distribution of wealth or redistribution
33:22upwards, and a bad deterioration in public services.
33:26I mean, the British, it's the National Health Service, which was introduced into World War
33:31II, and which is dear to the hearts and concerns of most Britons, which are always very proud of
33:37it, is disintegrating because it is being kept on an austerity budget, and it cannot provide
33:46the services.
33:47You have to, you know, some of the effects are almost unbelievable.
33:51People waiting a, you know, a year or 18 months in order to get some basic, an MRI done.
34:02And something like that.
34:03And it's so libraries and restricted public utilities have been sold off.
34:11So you have accumulated over the last 14, 15 years or so, a significant deterioration
34:19in the overall standards of living of most Britons.
34:24And as I said, labor has no response, no viable response to that.
34:29So their troubles, their serious troubles, are not the ones you see today.
34:33They're just minor reflections of deeper ills.
34:37And, you know, more serious consequences are likely to manifest themselves down the road.
34:42Basically, all the European Union, particularly the old members of the European Union,
34:46essentially as Western Europe, think the same way.
34:51They all share the same political philosophy, and they all have the same conservative bias.
34:57Their economies and societies all have the same problems.
35:03They find it very difficult to adapt themselves to a changing world in which there's a
35:08redistribution ongoing from the West, you know, to other parts of the world, especially,
35:16of course, China is the most striking case in point, but in other countries as well.
35:22And they find it very difficult to adapt to these circumstances in terms of both economic
35:31thinking, in terms of how they imagine their place in the world, and in the sort of vague
35:40area we might call status or self-esteem or whatever.
35:46And so, that is compounding their own internal, purely internal difficulties.
35:55That is occurring independent of, although aggravated by, Europe and the United States
36:03diminished role, relatively speaking, in the world economy.
36:10So, it's like a double, not a crisis, because it may be a crisis, objectively speaking,
36:15but it's not recognized as a crisis.
36:18So, you have a double crisis, an internal one, and a one that might, you know, speak
36:25of as their place in a rapidly changing world system.
36:32And, of course, the United States faces that situation, or is not, or isn't, and is in
36:39that situation in even more important respects than Europe.
36:45And it's following, to my mind, policies which are not contributing to any alleviation
36:52of it, but significant aggravation of it.
36:55The belief by American policymakers that it was a competitive, not just competitive in
37:01commercial terms, but that China's growing economic strength represented a challenge
37:06and a threat to American influence.
37:09And it was President Donald Trump who began the process of applying economic sanctions
37:16on China.
37:17That was greatly accentuated, you know, under the Biden administration.
37:22And the point I'm making at this moment, in regard to the European factor and the equation,
37:30is that Washington began to pressure its European allies to join them in this pattern,
37:39this program of sanctions, of going beyond sanctions, of restrictive economic intercourse
37:45with China, and especially in regard to the financing of, in a high-tech area.
37:53And now, of course, which is broken out into, you know, a veritable mercantilist
37:59approach and war, in which the Biden administration has tried to greatly diminish
38:05American participation in the high-tech areas of China, and to make the United States less
38:12dependent and more self-sufficient, like in the domain of semiconductors.
38:17And this sort of radical policy, whose roots are to be found in overall grand American
38:25strategy, in effect was imposed on the Europeans.
38:28So what you see is the Europeans, the United States, as European partners, following the
38:33United States in its wake, as they say, and increasingly, you know, introducing and implementing
38:41their own, or more restrictive measures, almost across the board, whether ranging from
38:47imports of electric sort of vehicles, to trying to sort of shift suppliers of computer chips,
38:57but the whole panoply of barriers that Washington has been trying and has been erecting between
39:05the United States and China, economic barriers, have been adopted by the Europeans.
39:10One might say it was certainly against their interests.
39:14It would be wrong to say it was against their will, because they didn't have enough will to
39:17resist it.
39:19And that raises the question, well, you know, as I said, it's mainly because Europeans lack
39:23any political will, they lack unity.
39:25They have not found a need, although in objective terms, they have had a need to think through
39:31their own strategic interests, quite apart from whatever lead or direction is coming
39:37from Washington.
39:38So Europeans, in fact, don't exercise any significant political will on their part.
39:44And they live in a dependency relationship with the United States, which dates back to
39:49the Cold War.
39:50And they have lost the aptitude and the self-confidence to assert themselves in any way
39:58which could run counter to American thinking.
40:02So, in effect, Europe really don't count on the international scene in so far as they
40:09deny themselves the latitude to make autonomous judgments and to pursue autonomous policies
40:15in any way different from or divergent from what's the American.
40:22And this was another episode of China Now, a show that opens a window to the present
40:27and future of the Asian giant.
40:29Hope you enjoyed it.
40:30See you next time.