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00:00Hello, Telesur English presents a new episode of China Now, our media's production that
00:14showcases the culture, technology and politics of the Asian giant.
00:17In this first segment, we are going to start with topics talking about how Israel carried
00:21out power office targets, ornaments, attacks against Hezbollah by hiding explosives inside
00:28Hagard batteries brought into Lebanon, according to senior Lebanese security officials who
00:33said the technology was so advanced as to be virtually undetectable.
00:39Also in China, Corinne talks about Egypt's flight jets lost in China, how Lebanon's
00:45Hagard attacks affect iPhone sales in China, Chinese workers providing they are the best
00:50in France and much more.
00:52Let's see.
00:54Welcome to TopX, your daily news related to China.
00:58I'm Derek.
00:59On 80th of September, a new wave of a remote exploding attack blasted in Lebanon, which
01:05was widely believed to be carried out by Israel, has killed at least 20 people and nearly 415
01:12wounded.
01:13According to Al Jazeera, several blasts took place simultaneously, which were similar to
01:18the explosions on Tuesday, but the second round was mostly related to walkie-talkies
01:24or radios.
01:25Lebanon's state news agency said some of the explosions occurred in a brand of two-way
01:30radio with images from the scenes showing walkie-talkies labeled with ICON and made
01:35in Japan.
01:36ICON is a Japanese manufacturer of wireless communication equipment producing amateur
01:42radios and navigation products.
01:44Its products are sold in more than 80 countries around the world with subsidiaries in the
01:49U.S., Australia, Germany, and Spain.
01:52According to the company, it has also supplied electronics gear to public safety organizations
01:58and the U.S. Department of Defense and Marine Corps.
02:01A statement on the company's website said that the ICVA-2 handheld radio was produced
02:07from 2004 to 2024 and exported to overseas markets, including in the Middle East.
02:13The company also emphasized that its products were sold overseas only to its authorized
02:18distributors, in line with Japanese government regulations.
02:23When it comes to the devices that exploded in Lebanon, ICON explained those devices were
02:28not fixed with a counterfeit prevention sticker, making it hard to confirm whether they were
02:33produced in Japan.
02:35However, the company refused to specify how it determined that radios did not have the
02:40label.
02:41Both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government accused Israel of making these attacks.
02:46Israel has not yet directly commented on the blasts, but Israeli Defense Minister Yoav
02:51Galant said in a speaking to Israeli soldiers on Wednesday that Israel is at the start of
02:57a new phase in the war.
02:59Despite no mention of the explosions of electronic devices in Lebanon, Galant praised the work
03:04of Israeli's army and security agencies, noting the results are very impressive.
03:10The U.S. denied having any pre-knowledge about the blasts.
03:13However, according to Reuters, a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity stated
03:19that Israel told Washington on Tuesday it was going to do something in Lebanon.
03:24The exact cause of the explosions remains unknown, but several analyses have suggested
03:30that the supply chain of the devices was tampered with or manipulated before reaching Lebanon.
03:37Bomb Disposal Specialist Chris Hunter told Al Jazeera that Israel may have gained access
03:43to the supplier.
03:44In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, Lebanon's Mission to the United Nations reported
03:49that a preliminary investigation by Lebanon's authorities found that the communication devices
03:54involved in the blasts had explosives planted in them before they arrived in Lebanon.
04:00Interestingly, in 2020, the U.S. had led a so-called Clean Network initiative against
04:05China, which says it seeks to eliminate the long-term threat to data privacy, security
04:11and human rights posed to the free world from authoritarian malign actors.
04:16According to the State Department's website, Israel, Japan and Taiwan authorities are still
04:22among U.S. partners in this initiative.
04:25However, the latest attack makes Chinese people doubt whether a pair of dirty hands can really
04:30clean the Internet.
04:34China Current is a weekly news talk show from China to the world.
04:38We cover viral news about China every week and also give you the newest updates on China's
04:43cutting-edge technologies.
04:44Let's get started.
04:55Welcome to China Current, your weekly news report on what's happening in China.
04:59I'm Lisa.
05:00In this episode, In Egypt, American Flight Jets Lost to China's, Lebanon Patriot Hacks
05:07Affect iPhone Sales in China, Taiwan Hacker Army Won the Chinese Netizens' Laughter
05:13with a Hilarious Performance, Chinese Workers Prove They Are the Best in France.
05:18First, let's focus on the latest achievement of China's arms sales.
05:24According to Chinese media, the paper, on 16 September, the Egyptian Air Force will
05:30purchase Chinese fighter jets to replace America's F-16.
05:35The Egyptian Air Force plans to purchase the J-10C fighter jet, produced by China's Chengdu
05:42Aircraft Industry Group.
05:43The aircraft can carry 5,600 kilograms of either missiles and bombs and can fly at a
05:50maximum speed of 1.8 miles.
05:53Its combat radius is 550 kilometers, while the direct distance between Cairo and Tel
05:59Aviv is 402 kilometers.
06:02This means that if Israel has an airshow, Egypt's J-10C would only need 11 minutes
06:08to get there.
06:09While Egypt's specific procurement quantity has not been disclosed, Voice of America claimed
06:14that China is expanding and targeting the Middle East regional market.
06:19However, according to information disclosed by other American media, the Middle East regional
06:25market is evidently being messed up by America's unreasonable pricing strategy.
06:30In fact, the Egyptian Air Force operates 220 F-16s, making it the fourth largest F-16 operator
06:38in the world.
06:39Washington had offered Cairo the upgraded F-16V, but the price of it was unreasonably
06:46expensive.
06:47For example, the U.S. once sold 66 of them to Taiwan Island for US$8 billion, which means
06:54each flight jet cost US$121 million.
06:58In contrast, Pakistan signed a US$1.4 billion deal with China in 2009 to buy a reported
07:0436 J-10Bs, with a unit price of only US$39 million.
07:10Compared to the products that the U.S. is trying to sell to Egypt, Chinese flight jets
07:15are not only half the price but also perform better.
07:19As Bulgarian Military.com reported, the J-10C offers superior combat capabilities compared
07:26to the enhanced F-16 model, or at a comparable cost.
07:31Military Watch Magazine also reported that the close to 200 F-16s that form the backbone
07:37of the fleet are considered among the least capable fourth-generation flighters in the
07:41world and have been heavily downgraded and restricted to using obsolete Cold War-era
07:47weaponry and no beyond-visual-range air-to-surface weapons whatsoever.
07:52In fact, the F-16 is an excellent fighter jet that has been tested in actual combat.
07:58However, due to relations with Israel, the U.S. has imposed varying degrees of air combat
08:04capability restrictions on the products sold to Egypt, preventing them from posing a significant
08:10threat to the Israeli Air Force.
08:13For example, they refuse to sell the AIM-120 missile, which should originally have been
08:18paired with the F-16.
08:21This means that Egyptian pilots must rely on AIM-7 missiles with a range of less than
08:2770km, while Israeli pilots have missiles with at least 105km range.
08:34On the other hand, China's J-10C flight jet can carry the PL-15 missile, which would
08:39allow pilots to strike enemies 300km away.
08:44And the relations between China and Israel is obviously not as close as that between
08:48the U.S.
08:50According to the Eurasian Times, China is also promoting its latest stealth fighter
08:54jet, the FC-31, to the global market, which has gathered attention in the Middle East.
09:01With the American F-35, Israel is currently the only country in the Middle East with stealth
09:06flight jet.
09:07However, how long this advantage will last is uncertain.
09:12Next up, let's turn our attention to Lebanon, which had a profound impact on Chinese customers.
09:19On the 17th of September, hundreds of pages in Lebanon simultaneously exploded by remote.
09:2512 people have been confirmed dead, including an 8-year-old girl.
09:30And 2,750 more have been injured, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon.
09:37The pages involved in the explosions belong to a Taiwanese manufacturer, Gold Apollo,
09:43and their products have been sold to 260,000 units in the U.S. and Australia in the past
09:50two years.
09:51A second wave of remote exploding occurred just a day after the first blast, which killed
09:57at least 20 people and nearly 450 wounded.
10:01According to Al Jazeera, several blasts took place simultaneously, similar to the explosion
10:07on the 17th, but the second round was mostly related to walkie-talkies, which were labelled
10:13with the Japanese manufacturer ICOM.
10:16The New York Times reported that Israel's intelligence agency Mossad allegedly hid explosives
10:22inside the pages, later triggering the explosion remotely.
10:27The operation may have been going on for several months and involved at least 5,000 pages.
10:33The exact cause of the explosion remains unknown, but several analysts have suggested that the
10:39supply chain of the devices was tampered with or manipulated before reaching Lebanon.
10:45Bombs disposal specialist Chris Hunter told Al Jazeera that Israel may have gained access
10:50to the supplier.
10:52The Pager attack sparked concerns about the security of supply chain on Chinese internet.
10:58In 2020, the U.S. led a so-called Clean Network initiative against China, especially Chinese
11:04technology giant Huawei, which says it seeks to eliminate the long-term threat to data
11:10privacy, security, and human rights posed to the free world from authoritarian malign
11:15actors.
11:17According to the State Department's website, Israel, Japan, and Taiwan authorities are
11:22all among the U.S. partners in this initiative.
11:25The recent Pager attacks have led many in China to question whether U.S. and its allies
11:30are really endangering the global supply chain by pushing Chinese products out of the market.
11:37On China's largest social media platform, Weibo, Xiang Ligang, a blogger with 1.6 million
11:43followers, commented that the Pager attacks have seriously undermined the credibility
11:48of electronic devices worldwide.
11:50He noted that many people in China are now questioning the security of products like
11:55iPhone and Tesla.
11:57Several days after Apple released its latest iPhone, both Pinduoduo and Taobao, the two
12:03largest e-commerce platforms in China, have slapped a 4% discount on the high-end iPhone
12:0916 Pro Max, which only came out for three days in China.
12:13For Chinese consumers, iPhones used to sell out immediately upon release.
12:18People queue up and even had to pay extras to scalpers to buy them.
12:22Things are changing.
12:23Next up, a Taiwanese hacker group were caught by Mainland China.
12:27On 23 September, China's Ministry of State Security exposed a Taiwanese hacker group
12:34specializing in fabricating fake news.
12:37Originally, their mission was to hack into the websites of universities and airlines
12:41in mainland China to steal confidential data and to spread misleading information through
12:47bot accounts, and they unsurprisingly failed.
12:51The hacker group, named Anonymous64, is led by members of Taiwan's cyber army, established
12:57in June 2017 by Taiwanese authorities.
13:00Interestingly, the Taiwanese government denies any involvement.
13:05This group operates an ex-account, where they boldly claim to have hacked the official
13:11website of 40 mainland Chinese universities and frequently posted images of hacking mainland
13:17China's digital billboards and internet television to spread hate speech.
13:22In their propaganda, they portrayed mainland China's cybersecurity as highly vulnerable.
13:28However, according to an investigation by China's Ministry of State Security, the
13:33images they posed were fake and edited by Photoshop, and the hacked university website
13:38were counterfeited replicas with no actual user traffic.
13:43Despite their largely unsuccessful hacking attempts, the group successfully exposed their
13:48whereabouts.
13:49China's Ministry of State Security accurately identified three active Taiwanese military
13:54personnel involved in the project, Luo Junming, Hong Liqi, and Liao Weilun.
14:01Well this marks their first successful entry into a general mainland Chinese official website.
14:06Next, on the 15th of September, the 47th World Scale Competition concluded in France.
14:13China claimed the top spot in the event, winning 36 gold, 9 silver, and 4 bronze medals.
14:20Chinese workers have won gold medals in projects such as aircraft maintenance, automotive technology,
14:26autonomous mobile robots, 3D digital gaming art, and cooking.
14:31Known as the Olympics for Workers, the week-long competition brought together over 1,600 workers
14:38from 69 countries and regions.
14:40The players competed across 59 skilled disciplines within six major categories, including construction,
14:47arts, communication, manufacturing, transportation, and services.
14:52Workers from Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia also pulled off amazing results in fields
14:57like information technology and engineering.
15:00South Africa also sent 26 workers to complete an event related to renewable energy and autobody
15:06repair.
15:07In fact, outside of competition, Chinese workers also remained close ties with their fellow
15:13athletes.
15:14Under the Belt and Road Initiative, the Luban Workshop, a vocational education and training
15:18network developed by China, allowed workers across Africa and Asia to learn skills from
15:24each other.
15:25According to the South China Morning Post, there are 33 new Luban workshops across 29
15:31Asia and Africa countries.
15:33It was a scheme that was first launched in Thailand in 2016.
15:38According to the Chinese Ministry of Education, more than 22,000 students have received vocational
15:43training there, with more than 10,000 have gone on to graduate with degrees from affiliated
15:49universities.
15:50China's main foreign aid agency recently said the Ethiopian Luban Workshop, based in
15:57Addis Ababa, has been designed as a high-quality skills training center for the entire African
16:04continent by the African Union headquarters.
16:08Despite the Luban Workshop providing a valuable platform for global workers to exchange technologies
16:13and improve vocational training, some Western outlets have cast doubts on its intentions.
16:19The Washington Post, for example, suggested that the Luban Workshops serve China's ideological
16:24goals, drawing parallel to the Confucius Institute, which have also faced criticisms and suspicion
16:31from the West.
16:32At the closing ceremony, Leon handed over the flag to Shanghai as the host of the 48th
16:39World Skill Competition.
16:40Let us wish workers from every country good results in the next competition.
16:45And that is all for today.
16:46Thank you for watching this episode of China Currents.
16:49If you have any thoughts or comments about our show, please reach us at the email address
16:53below.
16:54And we look forward to hearing from you and see you next time.
17:05We'll go for a short break, but we'll be right back.
17:07Stay with us.
17:11Stay with us.
17:18Welcome back to China Now.
17:19In this second segment, we have Thinkers Forum with Jan Orberg, academic and director of
17:24Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research.
17:27Likewise, in Global Arena is Charles Liu, senior fellow at The Hague University, both
17:34talking about interesting topics.
17:35Let's have a look.
17:41Now, if you go to 9-11, it was a lousy conflict analysis because everybody asked, how was
17:56it done and who did it?
17:59The attack, you know, on World Trade Center and Pentagon.
18:03And the third one was meant to be the White House, but the plane crashed.
18:10They did not ask, why was it done?
18:13And so if you don't ask why, you cannot solve the problem.
18:18But that was not the intention for the U.S.
18:20The U.S. wanted to exploit that victimhood.
18:25And I'm not underestimating it, but 3,000 people, less than 3,000 people were killed
18:30on 9-11, 2001, majority of which, or at least half of which, were not American citizens,
18:36but people who sat from all over the world in the World Trade Center.
18:41So with due respect to every life that cost, the United States decided to exploit that
18:47situation for saying, now we're going to have a global war on terror, the GWAT, the
18:53global war on terror.
18:56Our war on terror begins with Al-Qaeda, but it does not end there.
19:04It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and
19:13defeated.
19:17That means wherever we think that the guys who did this came from, we are going to bomb
19:21and occupy.
19:22So on the 7th of October, they invaded Afghanistan.
19:26And so over the time, these 23 years, figures from Brown University and elsewhere in the
19:34U.S. and other statistics have it that somewhere between one and five million people have lost
19:41their lives as part of the GWAT, the global war on terror that the U.S. started and still
19:48has running.
19:49So instead of asking, why did they take the financial center of the world, the military
19:55center of the world, Pentagon, and the political center of the world, namely the White House,
20:02which was telling, you know, they didn't bomb any kind of, you know, museum building
20:06or hospital or something.
20:07They took the three centers at that time.
20:12That should have been a message to someone.
20:14If you had read Bin Laden's book, he starts out saying that the West has done enormous
20:20harm, not the least mass killing people in the East, by which he referred to Hiroshima
20:28and Nagasaki.
20:29So long story short, you overreact because you consider yourself a victim.
20:36Namely, you try to kill terrorists and say that thereby you will fight terrorism.
20:45That's not the way it works.
20:47Because when you kill terrorists in the Middle East, al-Qaeda or al-Nusra or whatever, and
20:53by the way, the West has cooperated with a lot of them, for instance, in Aleppo in Syria.
20:58I've seen it myself.
20:59When you go for killing people, you don't solve the problem.
21:03What you should do is to ask yourself, why do people become terrorists?
21:09And when you have talked with terrorists and found out what their criticism and grievances
21:13are and how they feel marginalized and why they use violence to get attention, then you
21:18begin to have a sense of what can be done.
21:22And I think that has been a devastating development for the Western world.
21:29The fighting after 9-11 all around the world by the U.S. has contributed to making the
21:37U.S. more hated and having a more negative image than it otherwise would have had.
21:44That goes together with all the wars the U.S. has lost.
21:49There's no wars it has won since Vietnam has lost all the wars, morally, politically,
21:57legally.
21:58The strong country, the strong society is one in which your different elements of power
22:05are balanced equally much.
22:07A strong economy, strong political status, strong culture, strong social patterns, cohesion,
22:17strong legal power and legitimacy in the eyes of others.
22:22Now if all these are sinking, but there's one you have, and that is the military power.
22:27You become a kind of drug addict, in this case a weapons or militarism addict.
22:33And you will militarize yourself to death.
22:37Because the reason you have all this military is that you have taken the power from the
22:41economic power, the political power, the cultural power and invested that in your military.
22:47And warfare capacity.
22:48And the bottom of that, the basis that should carry this is becoming smaller and smaller.
22:55And the West at the moment is the best at military power.
22:59It is declining in economic power, it's declining in political power, it's declining in cultural
23:06power, it's declining in trade, it's declining in global legitimacy.
23:12But one thing the Americans and NATO can say is, we're strong, we can do things.
23:17Now they lost all the wars in Vietnam, but put that aside, we can still blow you up if
23:22you don't behave like we want you to behave.
23:24That's what happens at the moment because of this militarization against Russia.
23:28Which is perverse, because Russia was already a dwarf before all this started.
23:33Russia had 8% of NATO's military expenditures.
23:37Excuse me, nobody with 8% or 8 horses does not start a war against somebody who has 100
23:44horses.
23:45So this whole thing is fantasy.
23:48It is a way to legitimate your own, cover up your own blunder called Ukraine and membership
23:54of NATO.
23:55If you ask me why NATO is spreading, it's because our leaders in the West believe that
24:00we're number one, we're second to none in the military sphere.
24:04That means you will see all problems around you as something that can be solved by weapons.
24:10By means of weapons or more weapons.
24:12That's why diplomacy has basically disappeared.
24:15That's why economic sustainability, underlying defense has disappeared.
24:21That's why you don't care anymore about whether the rest of the world finds your policy is
24:26legitimate.
24:28And that's why you fight to preserve what you think you can preserve while everything
24:35else is falling apart.
24:36It takes no intelligence to start a war.
24:39It takes a lot of knowledge and intelligence to stop a war and create peace.
24:43And that's why I say there is a connection between intellectual and moral disarmament
24:48in the West.
24:49It doesn't matter anymore.
24:50We don't do diplomacy anymore.
24:52We don't take the other into account.
24:54We don't go for common security.
24:57We don't go for disarmament anymore.
24:59We don't respect the UN Charter because it's easier not to and just send some weapons.
25:03You see, the response from the Western NATO countries has been all the time, send more
25:08weapons.
25:09What do we do at the moment?
25:10It's a totally intellectually indefensible position.
25:14And the presidential candidates in the U.S. have it and built on it.
25:18We want a ceasefire while we pump in weapons and ammunition to Israel.
25:22Does that make sense?
25:24I think a child can see that that is stupid and doesn't make sense.
25:28I think there is a clear connection between militarism, armament, just hammering, you
25:37know, when you have a problem, whereas you need intellectual rearmament and moral rearmament
25:46if you want to solve conflicts in a productive and lasting sustainable way.
25:52It cannot be done by weapons, I'm sorry.
25:55And so this kind of intelligent conflict resolution is over.
26:01It's not used anymore.
26:02When I say these things here in the West, they say, oh, that's very idealist.
26:07I don't know where it happens, but I think it had to do with the fact that the Soviet
26:10Union broke down, Warsaw Pact disappeared, and then you could do anything you liked.
26:15There was a free world for the West in 20 years where you could start any war, you could
26:20bomb here and there.
26:21There was no Soviet Union that could prevent it.
26:23There was no China that could prevent it.
26:25There was nobody else who could prevent it.
26:27Now, let me give you a personal experience that I had in the 80s.
26:32I'm that old.
26:34Our colleagues, me and my colleagues, were working for the Swedish foreign ministry,
26:39writing reports, doing conceptual analysis, what is deterrence in psychological, political,
26:47and moral terms and things like that.
26:49And they would get the material, and they would then say, come up that and that day,
26:53and we will go through your text, and we have a lot of questions to you.
26:58Why?
26:59Because Sweden needed, as a non-aligned, to a certain extent neutral country, to devise,
27:05to develop its own policies and be unique.
27:09Because it did not just call Brussels or Washington, what shall we do?
27:14It had to, because it had its own policy, it had to be very, very solidly based in knowledge
27:20and clear concepts.
27:22Now, that's not the Sweden today.
27:25The Sweden today is a foreign policy that is completely in the interest of the United
27:29States.
27:31As a member of NATO, it has no independent foreign policy anymore.
27:35In my view, you could just as well close down the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, apart from
27:39ambassadors around the world, that's nice.
27:42And it is a total de-intellectualization.
27:47It's a foreign policy and security policy formulated without you needing any knowledge.
27:57Because you get the inspiration, the words, even the Twitter statements for press conferences,
28:02you get them through the Western influence.
28:06That's how Sweden, where I come from or live in, I've seen this setting up of not only
28:12NATO membership, but 17, I said 17, not 17, American military bases on Swedish territory,
28:2015 in Finland, 3 in Denmark, and 4 or 5 in Norway, and more than 40 bases in one year
28:26set up in what used to be a peaceful corner of the world.
28:30Not only NATO membership, but bilateral agreements about bases, bases that will be under American
28:37jurisdiction where, for instance, a sovereign state of Sweden has abdicated parts of its
28:44independence and sovereignty and given it to the United States.
28:48For what reason?
28:51For being used if there is a conflict with Russia.
28:55Not that we have something that we can contribute, not something that NATO is interested in,
29:00not something the Western world could make good means of, such as a mediation capacity,
29:07such as a strong disarmament policy, such as an inspirational UN relationship.
29:16We don't have it.
29:17We have nothing to give anymore.
29:19You can add to that, you know, Ukraine with NATO expansion is a factor that makes the
29:24West go down, because everybody who is not NATO can see that NATO was a main conflict
29:30creator until Russia, unfortunately, and I would say not very productively, invaded Ukraine.
29:39And then you had Nord Stream, and now you have the genocide in Gaza.
29:44All these things are contributing to undermining the authority and credibility and legitimacy
29:51in the rest of the world's eyes of the United States and the Western world, NATO and the European Union.
29:59I have never been anti-Western or anti-American, but I feel it's painful to see how nobody
30:07is threatening the West, but thanks to its own confrontational policies, its own militarism,
30:13its own, we can do nothing wrong, the hubris, we are demolishing ourselves in the West.
30:21I think that's very sad, and I wish there would be some leadership somewhere in the
30:25West who could say, hey, we've got to find out before it's too late.
30:30It has all the time been, we're doing nothing wrong.
30:33It's the others who are foolish or dangerous or a challenge.
30:38We keep on doing what we will, we step up what we do, not seeing that what they do has
30:44been self-destructive.
30:45And that's intellectually, you know, it's disarmament while you promote rearmament with
30:53military means, and that's very sad to see for those of us living in the West.
31:02A spokesman of the Turkish government has announced that Turkey is thinking of joining
31:08BRICS, or BRICS Plus, as it stands now, because now it's more than the five original countries.
31:15And this is fascinating, because for Turkey, which has been seeking to join the EU for
31:22a long time, has had problems.
31:25But it's also a member of NATO, a member of the US military alliance, is now seeking to
31:32join BRICS.
31:33Now, what does this mean?
31:34Of course, the US would not be very happy, because for Turkey, a member of NATO to join
31:41BRICS is clearly taking a stance for and with the global South.
31:48I think what we have is a situation in which countries, independent and sovereign states,
31:54are seeking the best for their countries, the best for their people.
31:59And it seems that participation in NATO does not seem to measure up in terms of improving
32:07the lives of the people of Turkey.
32:09But joining BRICS may actually help in promoting South-South collaboration, and promoting better
32:17trade, better financial terms, better everything among the members of BRICS.
32:23And given the fact that BRICS is now talking about a settlement currency for members of
32:29BRICS, starting with a settlement in local currencies, but possibly a BRICS currency
32:35for trade settlement, which will be very helpful to BRICS members, and other financial institutions
32:42being established, BRICS bank, BRICS development institutions, all of this would be quite meaningful
32:49for Turkey.
32:50I think these are real things, concrete things, much more than the imaginary enemies that
32:58NATO gets together to fight against.
33:00For the West, there's a concern that this taking a position on wanting to join BRICS,
33:06not only by Turkey, but many others, is actually siding with China, siding with Russia.
33:14Now, this is absolutely ridiculous, because BRICS was something that was created by Goldman
33:20Sachs banker, Brazil, India, Russia, China, and South Africa.
33:27It just happened that B-R-I-C-S sounded good.
33:31It is not a political or geopolitical formation.
33:36It's just that these five countries, at the head of the state level, decided that it would
33:41be interesting to have a collaborative effort along the lines of these five countries' interests.
33:47And that's why it was formed.
33:49And then they found there are lots of commonalities in terms of what they have to deal with, in
33:54terms of their development efforts.
33:56So they worked along those lines.
34:00Now, very good.
34:02Many other developing countries discovered this is very helpful, and hence decided to
34:07join and actively participate.
34:10And this is why Turkey is now seeking to join.
34:13It has nothing to do with taking the side of China or taking the side of Russia.
34:20It's just common sense of exercising your sovereignty and wanting to improve your relations
34:27with other Global South countries, improve trade, improve the livelihood of our people.
34:35I think the way things are moving is not just Turkey, but others will probably be joining.
34:42But the way things are going, BRICS Plus will become quite an entity, quite a sizable entity
34:48very soon.
34:50But it's a good thing.
34:51It's a good thing where the Global South collaboratively try to accelerate their development
34:57efforts and improve the lives of their people.
35:04A few weeks ago, a researcher, very well known actually, a neuroscientist, Dr. Wu Ying,
35:11committed suicide.
35:13And the National Institute of Health formally declared that many of the researchers have
35:19found that there have been discriminatory practices and really a lot of emotional and
35:25psychological pressure on Asian Americans, especially those of the Chinese descent.
35:32This is nothing new.
35:34We've known that this has been happening after Donald Trump, while he was president,
35:40launched a program to target Asian Americans, especially Chinese Americans, for national
35:46security reasons, quote unquote.
35:50And thereafter, there have been other legislation in U.S. Congress targeting the same, and even
35:57more ridiculous, targeting the Chinese government in terms of whether or not they had influence
36:04over researchers to capture U.S. information or science and technology secrets.
36:11Now, for someone who's been, I guess, subject to the same thing more than 50 years ago,
36:17I can actually talk quite a bit about this, because I remember the days of Martin Luther
36:23King, Reverend Martin Luther King leading demonstrations for civil rights against discrimination.
36:30I remember in 1968, the massive march on Washington.
36:35At that time, America talks about everybody being equal, human rights for all, and so
36:40on and so forth.
36:42But sorry, the N-word, you go to the back of the bus, or you don't even get a seating.
36:48And the N-word was prevalent all over, and it was commonly used.
36:54But it's nothing new for Asian Americans either, because at that same period, during
37:00that same period, you had many expressions used, derogatory expressions used against
37:08Asian Americans.
37:10Many of you probably have not heard of the expressions used at that time, and I was subject
37:15to exactly that.
37:17That continued on until today, but now it's become an international thing.
37:24It's China, China, China, Chinese Communist Party.
37:29But behind it all, underneath it all, is still racism and discrimination.
37:36A couple of years ago, fellow alumni of my alma mater, Princeton University, was putting
37:43together a scholarship fund for Chinese students to study at Princeton.
37:49And eventually, the thing was dropped because we were told, let's not say by whom, but let's
37:56say by university officials, that there is a discriminatory practice against foreign
38:04students from China, where FBI required reports on a regular basis on their activities.
38:12And even university officials were unhappy about what they had to do and were absolutely
38:20outraged by the discriminatory practices being imposed on them by the U.S. government.
38:27Of course, we know that the U.S. government has now other regulations coming out, and
38:34come and study in the U.S., pay full tuition, but don't touch the sciences.
38:40You can study the non-science subjects.
38:44It's really amazing when you think about it.
38:46I think back 50 years, more than 50 years ago, when Dr. Martin Luther King, and against
38:53the war in Vietnam, and demonstrations against the bombings in Cambodia, and so on and so
39:01forth.
39:02Going back over 50 years, and now the very same, however under a different guise, is
39:09now being practiced as racial discrimination seems to be so deeply ingrained in this country
39:16of the U.S.
39:17That all the talk about equality and the human rights, and so on and so forth, just seems
39:25so hypocritical.
39:29And this was another episode of China Now.
39:31A show that opens a window to the present and the future of the A.I., and I hope you
39:34enjoy it.
39:35See you next time.