China Now 03-02: China and U.S. drug control cooperation
The China Now special program informs about this country's news. The first segment analyzes U.S. and China’s discussions on drug control, and other stories. The second segment covers the increase of ocean’s temperature. Also includes interviews with Peter Walker and Yanis Varoufakis. teleSUR
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00:00 Hello, TELUS or English presents a new episode of China Now, a Wave Media's production
00:12 that showcases the culture, technology and politics of the Asian giant.
00:17 In this first segment, China Currents dives into this week's viral stories, including
00:22 China-US drug control cooperation and the surprising story of giant panda He Jie, among
00:28 other topics.
00:29 Let's see.
00:32 China Currents is a weekly news talk show from China to the world.
00:35 We cover viral news about China every week and also give you the newest updates on China's
00:40 cutting-edge technologies.
00:41 Let's get started.
00:42 Hi, welcome to China Currents.
00:53 I'm Chris.
00:54 Let's start this week's episode with a rather amusing story.
00:58 In an unexpected twist that has captured the hearts of netizens, He Jie, a giant panda
01:04 known as a dude for over three years, was revealed to be actually female.
01:08 This revelation from Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base has taken the Internet by storm,
01:13 climbing to the top of trending searches.
01:16 Through a post on its WeChat public account, the research base shared a video where the
01:21 caretaker, affectionately known as Grandpa Tan, disclosed the results of a recent expert
01:26 assessment He Jie and his, or should I say, her, sibling He Hua are in fact sisters.
01:32 This gender correction has left many followers of He Jie bewildered and amused.
01:36 Grandpa Tan explained that determining the gender of pandas can be quite complex.
01:41 When He Jie was born, her features leaned male, but the male traits became less distinct
01:47 as she grew older.
01:48 Experts then collected biological samples which showed He Jie is female.
01:51 This is not the first instance of gender confusion among pandas.
01:56 He Jie's father, Mei Lan, was also initially mistaken for a female.
02:00 I guess the Xs and Ys of this particular panda family are quite naughty.
02:05 Experts say giant pandas are among the hardest mammals to identify gender when young, and
02:10 traditional methods like observing the physical reproductive organ differences often don't
02:14 work well for panda cubs until they are three to four years old.
02:18 There are more reliable methods involving blood tests and other biological analysis
02:23 which are now routinely done to conclusively determine gender.
02:27 Next up, let's take a look at Chinese football.
02:30 On January 23, Group A of the 2023 Asian Cup concluded its matches in Doha, with the Chinese
02:36 national team losing 0-1 to the host nation Qatar, while Tajikistan secured a 2-1 victory
02:43 over Lebanon.
02:44 As a result, Qatar triumphed with three wins out of three games, leading the group and
02:49 advancing to the knockout stage with the top spot.
02:52 And Tajikistan followed, qualifying for the last 16 with one win, one draw and one loss,
02:58 totaling four points.
02:59 The Chinese team, with two points, finished third in the group.
03:04 Chinese football is in the middle of the nationwide anti-corruption campaign.
03:07 Both the former president of the Chinese Football Association and a former coach of the national
03:13 men's team were arrested in the late last year.
03:16 Next up, on January 22, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng held a meeting
03:22 with the director of the U.S. White House National Drug Control Policy Office, Gupta.
03:27 The two officials engaged in frank and in-depth discussions regarding bilateral cooperation
03:33 in the field of drug control.
03:35 And during the meeting, Ambassador Xie stressed the need for both sides to adhere to the spirit
03:40 of mutual respect, rule of law and professionalism.
03:43 He also urged the promotion of cooperation in various areas of drug control, practicing
03:48 law enforcement, collaboration and the facilitation of stable, healthy and sustainable development
03:53 in China-U.S. relations.
03:55 And Director Gupta expressed his commitment to implementing the consensus reached during
04:00 the meeting between the leaders of the two countries.
04:03 The discussions between the Chinese and U.S. officials are expected to pave the way for
04:07 enhanced cooperation and coordination in combating the global drug trade.
04:13 Both nations recognized the urgency and complexity of the issue and emphasized the importance
04:18 of international collaboration to address the challenges posed by drug-related crimes.
04:23 It also serves as another step forward in strengthening the bilateral relationship between
04:28 China and the United States.
04:30 Next up, in a recent release of economic data, 25 provinces in China have disclosed their
04:36 respective GDP figures for the previous year.
04:39 Among them, Guangdong Province has emerged as the front-runner, surpassing the milestone
04:45 of 13 trillion yuan, solidifying its position as the powerhouse in the nation's economy.
04:51 Additionally, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have also performed exceptionally
04:57 well, exceeding growth expectations.
04:59 Jiangsu is approaching the same milestone with a growth rate of 5.8%.
05:05 And similarly, Shandong and Zhejiang have achieved impressive growth rates of 6%, reaching
05:10 the 9 trillion yuan and 8 trillion yuan thresholds, respectively.
05:15 Among the 25 provinces, 15 provinces outperformed the national average growth rate of 5.2%.
05:22 With the convening of Local 2 Sessions in 2024, various provinces have started unveiling
05:27 their major economic data for 2023, along with their economic development targets for
05:33 the year ahead.
05:34 As of now, 25 provinces have published specific GDP figures for 2023, with 20 of them setting
05:40 growth targets for 2024 in their government work reports.
05:44 As China moves forward, these provinces will undoubtedly play crucial roles in driving
05:49 economic progress and fostering innovation.
05:52 The government's focus on promoting high-quality development and nurturing emerging industries
05:57 will further bolster their economic performances and contribute to the overall prosperity of
06:03 the country.
06:04 Next up, Alibaba.
06:05 In a significant shift within Alibaba Group's corporate hierarchy, Jack Ma, the company's
06:10 co-founder, has now become its largest individual shareholder.
06:15 This development follows Ma's recent acquisition of Alibaba shares valued at approximately
06:19 $50 million in the last quarter, surpassing his previous shareholding of 4.3% at the end
06:26 of 2021.
06:27 And Ma's increased investment marks the notable change in the e-commerce giant's stock ownership
06:33 structure.
06:34 The second-largest shareholder is now Alibaba's current chairman, Tsai Tung-hsin, also known
06:38 as Joe Tsai, who boosted his stake to 1.4% through share purchases by his family investment
06:45 vehicle, the report says.
06:47 In contrast, the shareholding of Alibaba's formerly largest stakeholder, Japanese conglomerate
06:51 SoftBank, has steadily declined.
06:54 According to the Morgan Stanley calculations cited in the report, SoftBank, controlled
06:59 by Masayoshi Son, has parred its Alibaba holdings from around 7% in December 2022 to about 2%
07:07 by March 2023, further dropping below 0.5% by May through forward contracts.
07:14 Next up, according to China's Workers' Daily report on January 24, for the first time,
07:20 Chinese courts have officially recognized the act of engaged and substantive work using
07:25 chat software after regular working hours as overtime.
07:29 The case involved a plaintiff named Ms. Li, who had been working at a technology company.
07:34 Ms. Li argued that her communication and interactions with clients and colleagues on social media
07:39 after office hours should also be considered overtime work, submitted WeChat chat's record
07:45 and official duty roaster for holiday community files as evidence.
07:49 However, the defendant company contended that since Ms. Li was the head of the operations
07:54 department, any calls received from employees or clients after work hours should not be
07:59 classified as overtime.
08:01 In a subsequent appeal, Judge Zheng Jizhe of the Beijing Third Intermediary People's
08:06 Court pointed out that the use of social media for work-related purposes after regular working
08:11 hours and on holidays went beyond mere communication.
08:16 The nature of the work involved had characteristics of periodicity and fixity, differentiating
08:22 it from occasional and incidental communication.
08:25 This reflected employers' labor management practices, leading to the conclusion that
08:30 it should be recognized as overtime.
08:32 As a result, the court ordered the company to pay Ms. Li a sum of 30,000 yuan as compensation.
08:39 In Kou Fang, the president of the Beijing High People's Court, stated that this ruling
08:43 establishes clear criteria for identifying invisible overtime and safeguards the legitimate
08:49 rights and interests of workers in a digital era.
08:53 Next up, let's wrap up China's anti-corruption campaign in 2023.
08:57 On January 25, China's top anti-corruption agency, the Central Commission for Discipline
09:02 Inspection, revealed on its official website that it received 1.057 million allegation
09:09 reports in 2023.
09:11 Out of this, 626,000 cases were filed, resulting in disciplinary measures against 610,000 individuals.
09:19 The disciplined individuals included 49 officials at the provincial and ministerial level, 3,144
09:28 officials at the department and bureau level, 24,000 officials at the county and division
09:35 level, 82,000 officials at the township and section level, and 85,000 general officials.
09:42 Additionally, disciplinary actions were taken against 470,000 individuals from rural areas,
09:48 enterprises and other sectors.
09:51 The CCDI also disclosed that it initiated cases against 17,000 individuals involved
09:57 in bribery and transferred 3,389 individuals to the public prosecutor's office.
10:04 The anti-corruption campaign highlights China's ongoing efforts to tackle corruption at all
10:09 levels of government and society, demonstrating the authorities' commitment to upholding
10:13 integrity and maintaining clean governance.
10:16 Last but not least, let's take a look at the weather here in China.
10:19 Beginning the evening of January 21, cities including Changsha and Nanchang welcomed snowfall
10:25 spurred by the first cold wave of the year 2024.
10:28 The National Meteorological Center issued a blue cold wave warning, a blue gale warning,
10:33 and a yellow heavy snowfall warning at 6am on January 22.
10:38 The forecast from January 22 at 8am to January 23 at 8am predicts heavy snow to blizzard
10:44 conditions in parts of southern Hunan, central and southern Jiangxi, southwestern Zhejiang,
10:50 northwestern Fujian, northeastern Guangxi and northern Guangdong.
10:55 Temperatures are expected to plummet, with the minimum temperature reaching 0 degrees
10:59 Celsius in the northern part of Guangxi and Guangdong.
11:02 Residents in affected areas are advised to prepare for severe weather conditions and
11:07 relevant authorities are on alert for any emergency response measures as the cold wave
11:12 progresses.
11:13 And that's all for today.
11:14 Thank you for watching this episode of China Currents.
11:16 If you have any thoughts and comments about our show, please reach us at the email address
11:20 below.
11:21 I'm Chris, looking forward to hearing from you and see you next time.
11:26 We'll go for a short break now, but we'll be right back.
11:32 Stay with us.
11:32 Welcome back to China Now.
11:51 In this second segment, discover how the increase in ocean temperatures impacts our planet and
11:57 listen to author Peter Walker discuss Taiwan as part of this week's Thinker's Forum.
12:03 Let's see.
12:04 In 2023, the oceans experienced the hottest temperature ever recorded.
12:13 Hi, I'm Lisa and welcome to Threshold.
12:16 Today we are going to talk about the oceans' temperature.
12:19 On the 11th of January 2024, a report from an international team of 34 scientists revealed
12:26 that the global average sea surface temperature in 2023 rose by about 0.23 degrees Celsius
12:33 compared to 2022.
12:36 This may seem like a small change, but it has a great impact on our world.
12:41 Not only did the sea surface temperatures reach a record high, but the upper 2,000 meters
12:46 of the ocean also absorbed an additional 15 plus or minus 10 zeta joules of heat in 2023
12:55 compared to 2022.
12:57 This surpasses all previously observed values for ocean heat content from 0 to 2,000 meters
13:03 since 1960.
13:04 To put the 15 zeta joules into perspective, it's enough energy to evaporate 2.3 billion
13:12 Olympic-sized swimming pools filled with water.
13:16 Or it could bring Lake Bacao, the world's largest freshwater lake, to a boil.
13:21 Another way to understand this is that it is equivalent to around 1.85 million 2,000
13:27 kilowatt wind turbines running at full capacity for 100 years.
13:34 These unprecedented ocean temperatures serve as a stark reminder that climate change is
13:38 happening at an alarming rate.
13:41 It has a tangible effect on our oceans.
13:44 One immediate impact is that the intensification of ocean stratification, which refers to the
13:49 layering of water based on temperature and density.
13:52 Normally, the oceans have a structure where the surface is lighter and the deep waters
13:58 are heavier.
13:59 As the surface warms, it becomes lighter, creating a barrier that prevents the mixing
14:04 of nutrient-rich deep waters with the surface.
14:08 This disruption affects the balance and health of the marine ecosystem and has already led
14:13 to a decline in Black Sea fisheries.
14:17 But the consequences go far beyond marine life.
14:20 The ocean, as Earth's largest thermoreservoir, plays a crucial role in regulating global
14:25 weather patterns.
14:27 Changes in ocean temperatures directly impact atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns,
14:32 leading to more frequent extreme weather events that have severe impact on our lives.
14:37 We've already seen examples such as Storm Daniel, with extensive flooding in Libya,
14:42 and Super Typhoon Dok Suri causing a once in 200 years brainstorm in Beijing, Tianjin,
14:48 Hebei region in China.
14:51 The record ocean temperatures are affecting exclusive economic zones in the ocean.
14:57 For example, coastal and island tourism along the Mediterranean Economic Zone faced challenges
15:02 from the hottest Mediterranean summer on record in 2023, including heatwaves and wildfires.
15:10 Industries in these regions are facing huge challenges.
15:14 Fishing communities are also impacted, with the fishing migration pattern severely impacted
15:19 due to the warming waters.
15:21 Tuna stocks, for example, are now harder to find, and this jeopardises the livelihood
15:26 of generations of those who have relied on sea for centuries.
15:31 And so it's not just about tourism, it is also about our food security.
15:37 Additionally, hurricanes, heatwaves, and other extreme weather events can damage energy infrastructure
15:42 like power grids and offshore wind farms, disrupting energy production.
15:48 Extreme weather events and rising sea levels can also damage transportations and logistic
15:52 networks, which in turn affects the global supply chains.
15:56 And so the negative impacts of ocean warming are widespread.
16:00 On 17 November 2023, the global average temperature exceeded 2.07°C above pre-industrial levels,
16:09 surpassing the critical 2°C threshold set by the Paris Agreement for the first time.
16:16 The World Meteorological Organization has issued warnings emphasising the urgent need
16:22 for rapid emissions reductions to meet the 2°C target.
16:27 Without immediate action, we are heading towards the irreversible consequences of climate change.
16:33 It is easy to feel disconnected from numbers and reports, but the reality is that climate
16:37 change is happening right now.
16:40 And that is all for today's Threshold.
16:42 As usual, we welcome your feedback and thoughts.
16:45 Today I'm going to focus on the subject of Taiwan, which is very timely for a couple
16:54 of reasons.
16:55 One is, as many of you know, Taiwan just had their election within the last week.
17:01 And then the second more fundamental reason is Taiwan is an absolute top priority strategic
17:08 issue for China.
17:10 And therefore it's in the news a lot.
17:13 And what I really want to focus on today are some of the fundamentals of Taiwan as we think
17:19 about it.
17:20 Let me start with the first point, how strong is China's case that they are the legitimate
17:27 owners of Taiwan and Taiwan is an integral part of China?
17:32 From my point of view, the China case is pretty strong for a couple of reasons.
17:37 One, Taiwan has been part of China since the 17th century, so a great deal of history.
17:44 Secondly, China lost Taiwan to the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War in 1895.
17:55 So it was part of the century of humiliation where a foreigner basically came in and took
18:01 it away just as the British had taken away Hong Kong.
18:07 The third thing is that if you look at the Civil War, the U.S. wound up backing the nationalist
18:14 Chinese who lost, obviously, and the nationalist Chinese basically retreated to Taiwan and
18:20 took it over and governed it for a number of years.
18:25 And then finally, and this is really the major point, is that after the Nixon-Kissinger visit
18:32 to China and the warming up of relations between the U.S. and China, you had formal relations
18:40 established between the U.S. and China in 1979, and that included a one-China policy
18:49 that basically recognized that there was one China, it was mainland China, and Taiwan essentially
18:56 is part of China.
19:00 Now since that declaration, which has been bought into by virtually almost all the countries
19:05 around the world, when you go back over history and when you think about the fact that Taiwan
19:14 is made up of Han Chinese and Confucian values are as strong in Taiwan as they are in China,
19:21 and then you add to it the formal recognition of the U.S. and then most of the rest of the
19:26 major countries that China is the official leader of Taiwan, and that has real influence
19:35 on how the rest of the world reacts to whatever happens between the U.S. and China on the
19:42 issue of Taiwan.
19:44 Let's look at the next issue.
19:47 What are the cultural considerations that the West really pays very little attention
19:52 to that actually have a significant influence on how China winds up treating Taiwan?
20:01 It's easy to just think about Taiwan as a landmass with a border that's 100 miles away
20:08 from the China coast.
20:10 But what that misses is the fact that China is a civilization state, and by civilization
20:18 state what I mean is that it's a single nationality or ethnic group, which are the Han, which
20:26 account for 92%, which is very different from almost any other major countries.
20:32 Certainly the U.S. has been for many years a melting pot, and that's one of the reasons
20:38 we have so much division in the U.S. today is there are very different groups with very
20:43 different interests.
20:45 That's not true in China and Taiwan.
20:48 They are both Han, and they're both Confucian.
20:53 So you have to think of Taiwan as part of the Chinese nation and part of the Chinese
21:00 civilization.
21:01 So it's not simply an island that China would like to "own."
21:06 It's made up of Chinese people with Chinese beliefs, and that has a very significant influence
21:12 on the next cultural issue, which is basically the fact that China has for its history been
21:21 a very peaceful country.
21:22 If you go back over the last thousand years, China has initiated war with other countries
21:30 three times in a thousand years, and all three were minor.
21:34 A lot of that goes back to the art of war, which is a military classic coming out of
21:40 China that basically had the interesting idea that the best way to win a war is to never
21:48 resort to violence.
21:50 And that's very different from the West.
21:52 Certainly if you look at the record in the U.S. over the last 60 years, the number of
21:58 invasion of foreign countries by the U.S., even though in every case there would be a
22:03 story as to why it was appropriate, the reality is the U.S. was the aggressor and remains
22:09 so for a long period of time.
22:11 So now let me switch over to the election and what we can learn from the election.
22:17 At first blush, the DPP, which is the governing party right now in Taiwan, was reelected with
22:27 the leading number of votes among the three major parties.
22:33 And so you would say, okay, it's a continuation of the DPP and the DPP is the most favored
22:40 of independence for Taiwan of the three parties.
22:46 But if you look behind the numbers, there's more than that going on.
22:50 The DPP won 40% of the vote, which means 60% of the vote, the majority of the people basically
22:57 are with parties who want to retain the status quo between China and Taiwan.
23:04 And then finally, if you look at the legislature, DPP controlled the legislature prior to this
23:10 election.
23:13 It lost control of the legislature in this election, which means their ability to push
23:18 their own agenda is going to be very modest at best.
23:24 The European crisis, which is getting worse and worse since 2015, deeper and deeper, the
23:36 shift to the right, to fascism, to racism, to xenophobia, the subjugation to Washington
23:43 and NATO and the United States of the whole of Europe.
23:46 This is one story.
23:47 These are not separate stories.
23:49 One story, the decline, permanent decline of Europe, and it's drifting in a reactionary,
23:57 misanthropic direction.
23:59 It's soul destroying what's happening because you see the problem, it's not if only that
24:04 were the problem, that is a symptom.
24:06 What happens is we have two kinds of authoritarianism, two kinds of malignancies, if you want.
24:14 We have the authoritarianism of the so-called liberal establishment in Brussels, in Paris,
24:20 in Germany.
24:21 They're extremely authoritarian.
24:23 When I was the finance minister of Greece, I saw them in action.
24:26 They talk about democracy, but they hate democracy.
24:29 Their one nightmare that they have is actual democracy.
24:33 The people who talk about democracy are the ones who are working very hard to ensure that
24:37 democracy is a system that legitimizes whatever it is that they do.
24:41 But if the people, the demos, go against what they want, they just completely annul it.
24:46 It's propaganda that they care about democracy.
24:48 So you've got this authoritarian liberal center.
24:51 And then you've got the reaction to that, which is the fascist, racist, xenophobic,
24:58 ultra-right.
24:59 But these two, which appear as enemies, are essentially the two different sides of exactly
25:05 the same coin.
25:06 They are symbiotic with one another.
25:08 I'll give you a very specific example.
25:10 Take the president of France, Emmanuel Macron.
25:13 I know him personally.
25:14 He's fine.
25:15 I actually quite liked him when we used to talk and exchange ideas and so on.
25:21 But he's the representation of this liberal authoritarian establishment.
25:26 He sounds very liberal, very democratic, but he's head of a government that is, as we speak,
25:33 it is presiding over pogroms against French citizens of an ethnic Arab background.
25:41 They introduce laws by which they can take away your citizenship if you're an Arab French
25:47 person without you knowing it.
25:50 No rule of law.
25:52 This is what the ultra-right are proposing.
25:54 So Macron is in power.
25:58 He's only in power because he's opposed to the ultra-right.
26:03 People elected him because he was not Le Pen, because he was not the ultra-right, in opposition
26:08 to the ultra-right.
26:09 But in government, he introduces the legislation of the ultra-right and he needs the ultra-right
26:14 to be against him so that he remains in government to do what the ultra-right wants.
26:20 It's a great paradox.
26:21 At the same time, the ultra-right needs Macron.
26:23 Le Pen should thank Macron every day because the reason why she's doing well in the polls
26:30 is because of her opposition with Macron.
26:33 So this opposition is a fake opposition.
26:35 I'm not saying it's a conspiracy.
26:36 I'm sure they don't like each other, but that's not the point.
26:39 They need each other.
26:40 They may hate each other, but they need each other because Le Pen would not be Le Pen without
26:43 Macron and Macron would not be Macron without Le Pen.
26:46 Why are the Europeans xenophobic all of a sudden?
26:48 It's not that they suddenly decided that they're against the Arabs, the Chinese, the Muslims
26:53 and so on.
26:54 No, it's because Europe is failing economically.
26:57 Middle class families are finding it very hard to make ends meet.
27:02 They cannot see a future for their children which is as good as the past that they had.
27:09 So they're getting angry and when the people get angry, it's really very easy for racists,
27:15 xenophobes to rise to the polls.
27:16 All you have to do is get up and say it's the foreigners fault, the Jews, the Muslims,
27:20 the Chinese.
27:21 That's the easiest way of gaining support at a time when the many, the majority are
27:27 suffering, are struggling when you have recession.
27:30 So yes, it's been very hard because you see it's like you're between a rock and a hard
27:36 place.
27:37 The rock of the liberal establishment and the hard place of the neo-fascist xenophobes.
27:42 And because they are supposedly fighting with one another, if you're trying to be in between
27:47 and to be neither with one nor the other, you get squashed.
27:50 We've been squashed.
27:51 There's no doubt about that.
27:52 The question of racism.
27:55 I mean, in my country, in 2015 when I was in government, we didn't have any racism.
28:02 You know, people were coming, refugees were coming on our shores.
28:05 Throughout the summer of 2015, we had more than a million people that arrived on our
28:09 shore.
28:10 One million people.
28:11 It's a small country.
28:12 This is not China, right?
28:13 We are 10 million souls.
28:14 One million arrive in a country of 10 million.
28:16 That is a lot.
28:17 It's a lot.
28:19 And people rushed to the coast, to the beach, to the coastline to assist, to help the refugees.
28:28 Okay, now, eight years later, we're building walls.
28:32 When it's pushing back the boats at sea, killing them.
28:36 You know, I mean, there's just not even criminal negligence.
28:39 There is criminal intent.
28:42 Six months ago, there was a boat laden with 700 people, of whom 300 were children.
28:47 And the Greek coast guard tried to tow them away from Greek waters in the middle of the
28:51 sea.
28:53 The vessel capsized.
28:54 They all drowned.
28:55 All.
28:56 600 out of the 700, including 300 children.
28:58 So we committed that crime against humanity.
29:02 And people don't care.
29:03 Why?
29:04 Because after all those years, they've lost hope.
29:06 Caught up between these two authoritarians.
29:08 There's no doubt that we had corruption in Greece.
29:10 We still do.
29:11 We always did.
29:12 And we continue to have corruption in Greece.
29:14 But the bankruptcy of Greece has nothing to do with corruption.
29:17 Let me give you an example.
29:19 We have a neighboring country just above us, north of Greece, called Bulgaria.
29:23 Bulgaria and Greece are quite similar in the sense that we are semi-corrupt, low productivity,
29:31 low investment, amongst the poorer countries in Europe.
29:34 Nobody talks about the bankruptcy of Bulgaria because Bulgaria didn't go bankrupt.
29:38 Why didn't they go bankrupt?
29:40 Not because they were less corrupt.
29:41 Not because they did things better.
29:42 No.
29:43 The reason is the Euro.
29:46 We were in the Euro and Bulgaria was not in the Euro.
29:49 In brief, when we had our own currency, the weakness of the Greek economy meant that every
29:55 month the Greek currency was going down.
29:59 It was devaluing.
30:00 Because we had a deficit, we had a current account deficit, a trade deficit.
30:04 And therefore, like in every country, if you've got a chronic deficit, except for the United
30:09 States of America, because the United States of America is a separate case, it's a different
30:13 beast altogether, but for every other country in the world, when you have a constant trade
30:18 deficit, your currency goes down.
30:20 And that slide of your currency stabilizes the economy because it makes imports more
30:26 expensive, exports cheaper, so it pushes your trade deficit back towards zero.
30:33 It's a stabilizing force, the exchange rate.
30:37 Also, when we had the Greek drachma, German banks didn't want to lend to the Greeks.
30:44 But then we get into the Euro in the year 2000.
30:46 Bulgaria does not get into the Euro.
30:49 So effectively the Euro is the Deutschman.
30:52 Let's not beat about the bush here.
30:55 It's not a coincidence that the central bank of Europe is next to the central bank of Germany,
30:58 which is in Frankfurt.
30:59 It is the same.
31:00 It's the same currency.
31:02 What happened was that Germany extended its currency to Greece, which means that Germany
31:07 controlled the currency.
31:09 Suddenly, the Greeks become fantastic customers for German bankers.
31:15 Because even though we may be poor compared to the Germans, we have something the Germans
31:19 don't have.
31:20 We owned our homes.
31:22 80% of Greeks owned the home in which they lived.
31:25 They didn't pay rent.
31:26 So you have an asset.
31:27 Oh, good thing.
31:28 You are an ideal customer for a banker if you have your home.
31:33 And secondly, the Greeks didn't have debt.
31:36 Families in Greece in the year 2000 didn't have debt.
31:39 There were no credit.
31:40 People didn't have credit cards.
31:41 They didn't have mortgages.
31:42 They had low incomes.
31:44 But they owned their home and they didn't have debt.
31:46 Therefore they were, the German bankers, best possible customer.
31:52 That's what a banker wants.
31:53 A customer with collateral and no debt and an income.
31:58 After the financial crisis of Western capitalism in 2008, which exactly as in 1929, 2008 was
32:07 our generation's 1929, I mean the similarities are uncanny.
32:11 It begins with Wall Street.
32:12 There is a banking collapse.
32:15 That banking collapse rolls over to Europe, to Britain, the city of London, to Frankfurt,
32:20 the banks there, the banks in Paris.
32:23 And very soon after that, you have a recession.
32:25 You have the weakest links of the chain.
32:29 Countries that are weakest and more prone to deficits and debts collapse, like Greece,
32:35 Ireland, Portugal, then Italy, Spain.
32:38 There is a domino effect.
32:40 Governments impose harsh austerity on the lower classes, the working classes, while
32:46 printing billions for the finances, for the banks to refloat them, to bail them out.
32:53 And that started the process of fragmenting the European Union, of Europe, of pushing
32:59 our peoples apart, of turning the Germans against the Greeks, the Greeks against the
33:04 Germans, the French against everyone.
33:07 When in reality what has been happening is there was always a cartel of big business
33:13 and big finance that was creating the circumstances for this crisis.
33:19 And then when the crisis happened, the innocent people of Europe paid for that cartel.
33:27 Every single German bank and every single French bank went bankrupt in 2008-2009.
33:33 Which means they stopped lending the Greeks, the Greek banks and the Greek citizens.
33:38 When you've taken debt, you need to keep taking more loans to repay the previous loans, keep
33:43 rolling the loans over.
33:45 If your banker says, "Ah, you owe me 100 million one, or euros or whatever, and I'm
33:52 not going to extend this, give it back to me now", you go bankrupt.
33:55 You can't repay it all at once because your banker doesn't want to extend the loan anymore.
34:00 So that's why Greece went bankrupt.
34:02 If the European Union, if the government in Germany for instance, were to allow the Greek
34:07 state to tell the truth that we're bankrupt, we cannot repay those debts.
34:11 If we admitted that, then it would be the German government that would have to give
34:16 even more money to Deutsche Bank to bail out.
34:19 Now that was a catastrophe.
34:21 Because the money they gave to Greece, they didn't give it to Greece, the money went through
34:24 the Greek Ministry of Finance all the way back to Deutsche Bank.
34:27 Okay?
34:28 None of that money went to Greece.
34:31 Instead what went to Greece in the middle of a recession was huge austerity.
34:35 So we had the reduction of wages by 40% in the middle of a recession.
34:40 A reduction of pensions, 40%.
34:43 Huge increase in taxes.
34:45 So the economy went into a nosedive.
34:47 That didn't happen in Bulgaria.
34:49 Now didn't they know that if you do that, it's like killing the cow that you want milk
34:54 from.
34:55 So they wanted their money back, supposedly, right?
34:58 But they were killing the cow that would produce it, the Greek economy.
35:01 Didn't they know that?
35:02 Yes, of course they knew that.
35:04 They knew they would never take their money back.
35:05 They just wanted to bail out their own banks.
35:07 The facts are terrible.
35:09 Here are some basic facts that cannot be disputed.
35:12 The country went bankrupt in 2010, officially.
35:15 Everybody agrees with that.
35:16 If you look at our debt today, back then it was 300.
35:20 Today it's 410, our debt.
35:23 Our income is today lower than it was in 2010.
35:26 Lower.
35:27 So compared to the day we were bankrupt, we have less money and more debt.
35:31 Where's the recovery?
35:32 We have less investment today than we had in 2010.
35:36 We have less investment today than we had in 2004 or 2002.
35:40 We have wages that are lower today than they were in 2010, with prices that are much higher.
35:49 Where is the recovery?
35:50 And finally, we have lost one million people.
35:53 10% of the population have migrated.
35:56 And these are young people, well-educated people.
35:59 This is the real capital of Greece.
36:01 They've stabilized Greece.
36:03 But in a way that you stabilize a patient who is in a coma.
36:07 The fact that somebody is in a coma, okay, yeah, he or she is stable.
36:11 But doesn't mean that they are healthy.
36:14 This is why politics has acquired such a bad name in Europe, and why democracy is finished
36:21 in Europe.
36:22 Because people don't believe it.
36:23 They know their politicians are lying to them.
36:25 They are working on behalf of bankers.
36:27 They are, even if the people elect the government like the one I was part of, to go against
36:33 Greece, that government is overthrown, because we were, I was overthrown.
36:36 Imagine if a foreign power could switch off every ATM in your country.
36:41 That's financial terrorism.
36:42 That's what they did to us.
36:43 The media is controlled by the same people who control the ATMs.
36:49 It's really very simple.
36:50 It's not that complicated.
36:51 This is not a conspiracy theory.
36:53 But in this country, in my country, take the television channels.
36:57 There are five television channels.
36:59 Each one is owned by an oligarch who owns the power stations.
37:03 I didn't own the electricity power stations 10 years ago when I was in government, after
37:08 my prime minister surrendered.
37:10 These oligarchs got the power stations.
37:12 They are laughing all the way to the bank.
37:14 Imagine being given a power station in the middle of an electricity crisis.
37:19 It's really brilliant.
37:20 You know, it's like having your own ATM in your own living room, right?
37:24 And you own the television channel.
37:26 Now that television channel is not going to present something like what I said to you,
37:30 because it goes against the interests of the owner of the television channel.
37:33 They would be mad to put somebody like me on.
37:37 And when they do put me on, they make sure that I'm never heard, that they always interrupt
37:42 me.
37:43 And then when I leave the studio, then they talk about the man who destroyed Greece and
37:46 Europe and you know, whatever.
37:48 But that's perfectly natural.
37:50 If you hand over the news outlets to the oligarchs who benefit from the surrender of the Greek
37:57 people and the European people, well, this is the blanket propaganda that you're going
38:01 to get.
38:02 But it really is becoming laughable because as you know, there's a terrible war happening
38:08 north of Greece in Ukraine.
38:10 In the last two years of this war, awful war, I think the news bulletins of the Greek media
38:17 are very instructive, not just for here for Greece, but also for you far away.
38:22 Because you see the hypocrisy of power in full technical.
38:26 I'll give you an example, right?
38:28 Now every single television channel, because they are completely in tune with Brussels
38:33 and Washington, supports Zelensky Ukraine against Russia and so on.
38:37 I'm not judging that.
38:38 I'm simply relating it to you.
38:40 They have the Ukrainian flag.
38:42 People like me, I consider Putin to be a monster, but I also consider what NATO is doing in
38:48 Ukraine to be a crime.
38:50 The never ending war, the endless war that Washington wants.
38:53 Essentially, again, Putin and the United States need one another because they both benefit
38:58 a lot from this war.
38:59 The only people who lose out are the Russians and the Ukrainians and the Europeans and the
39:02 Africans whose food prices are going up through the roof.
39:06 Anyway, just the fact that I do not take NATO's line that we should be with Zelensky and with
39:12 the Azov battalion and the Ukrainian troops must invade Crimea and they must take Moscow,
39:18 just because I don't agree with that, because I think this is madness.
39:22 Absolute madness and very dangerous for a third world war and so on.
39:25 I'm being portrayed by these channels as Putin's slave, as somebody who is a stooge of Putin,
39:33 which is a joke.
39:34 They are so gung-ho, these channels, in favor of Zelensky in Ukraine.
39:38 The same owners of those channels carry 65% of Putin's oil.
39:44 You see what I mean by hypocrisy?
39:46 Their channels are Zelensky, Zelensky, Zelensky.
39:50 Their tankers are carrying Putin's oil.
39:52 Then they made sure that they use their immense narrative power, propaganda power, their monopoly
39:59 of the media, in order to make sure that nobody outside the world hears anything about Greece,
40:05 except that Greece is now fine, that it is flying high, that the economic crisis is finished.
40:10 So if the problem is a European problem, the solution cannot be one based on the nation
40:16 state.
40:17 It has to be a European solution.
40:18 In 2015, 2016, some of us realized that the number one priority was to unite the people
40:25 of Europe, to stop this process of turning the North against the South, the East against
40:29 the West, to making it clear to the people of Europe that this is not a clash between
40:34 the rich North and the poor South, but it is a clash between a cartel of big business,
40:39 which is located everywhere.
40:41 So it's hard to keep going, but there's no alternative to keep going.
40:49 And this was another episode of China Now, a show that opens a window to the present
40:53 and future of the Asian giant.
40:56 Hope you enjoyed.
40:57 See you next time.
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