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00:00Hello, Tele3 English presents a new episode of China Now, a Wave Media's production that
00:15showcases the culture, technology and politics of the Asian giant.
00:19In this first segment, China Currents dives into the 16th Summit of the BRICS, a multilateral
00:24event that delivered a great gift to the Global South.
00:27China Currents is a weekly news talk show from China to the world.
00:35We cover viral news about China every week and also give you the newest updates on China's
00:40cutting-edge technologies.
00:41Let's get started.
00:52Welcome to China Currents, your weekly news report on what's happening in China.
00:56I'm Lisa.
00:57In this episode, BRICS come together to deliver a great gift to the Global South.
01:02Huawei released a new game-changing operating system.
01:06IMF pointed out China, India and Brazil will be the engine of global economy in 2025.
01:12First, let's see how the BRICS will end the US dollar hegemony.
01:16From 22nd October to 24th, the 2024 BRICS Summit took place in Russia, generating significant
01:24attention among the Chinese public for two key announcements.
01:28The first was President Putin's unveiling of sample banknotes for the BRICS currency.
01:34And the second was the introduction of the BRICS Pay, a new cross-border payment system.
01:40Both developments represent significant progress in the de-dollarization movement, and it opens
01:45up the possibility for China, Russia and the Global South to be immune to US sanctions.
01:51First, the BRICS banknote features the flags of the five founding countries, along with
01:57those 14 other member nations.
01:59The design also incorporates various languages and landmarks from each country, showcasing
02:05a commitment to cultural inclusiveness and diversity that stands in stark contrast to
02:10the US dollar and euro.
02:12On the other front, BRICS Pay is posed to neutralize the financial sanctions leveraged
02:17by the US.
02:18Following the onset of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the US removed Russia from the SWIFT
02:23system, complicating trade for Russian companies and making it difficult for ordinary Russians
02:29to access their funds in European and US banks.
02:33Even Swiss banks, traditionally viewed as having a neutral position, imposed sanctions
02:38on Russia.
02:39But now, the BRICS Pay will make it harder for the US and EU to repeat such action.
02:44And it also has two other major improvements.
02:47First, the SWIFT system is heavily influenced by the US and the EU due to systematic discrimination
02:54against the Global South within its governance structure.
02:57It is overseen by a board of directors comprising 25 members elected by the most influential
03:03banks.
03:04As of May 2024, representatives from the US, EU, Australia and Canada hold 21 of these
03:1025 seats.
03:11In contrast, China, South Africa, Japan and Singapore collectively share four seats for
03:17Asian and African countries, while South American nations have no representation at all.
03:22So how can the financial interests of the Global South be adequately represented in
03:27such an imbalanced voting system?
03:30In contrast, the BRICS Pay system employs a decentralized cross-border message system
03:36developed by Russia's St. Petersburg State University.
03:39The system operates without a central owner or hub, allowing the participants to manage
03:45their own nodes.
03:46In this decentralized framework, no country can impose its will on others' node, regardless
03:52of its size or military power.
03:54Furthermore, BRICS Pay enables member countries to conduct cross-border payments in their
03:59own currencies, mitigating the effect of foreign exchange fluctuations on trade.
04:05The era when a single nation can dominate the global economy merely by printing money
04:10is coming to an end.
04:12Secondly, the SWIFT system enjoys widespread global use because it effectively encompasses
04:18the world's most significant economies.
04:20Therefore, it is very challenging for countries that are reliant on exporting raw materials
04:26and other products to detach from it.
04:28However, BRICS Pay also includes several important economies.
04:32As of 2024, BRICS' country controls 52% of the world's natural gas reserves, 42%
04:39of global oil reserves, and 53% of food production.
04:43Based on purchasing power parity calculations, the BRICS organization accounts for approximately
04:4835.4% of global GDP, which surpasses the G7's share of 29.6%.
04:56And BRICS also represents 45% of the global population.
05:00These statistics indicate that if Europe and the United States were to impose sanctions
05:05on the BRICS Pay, it would effectively isolate itself as half of the world's population
05:10and resources.
05:12For the global South, the end of dollar hegemony appears to be on the horizon.
05:16The primary concern for the Chinese public at this moment seems to be the relation between
05:21China and India, particularly regarding border tensions.
05:25However, during the 2024 BRICS summit, China and India reached an agreement on arrangements
05:31for checkpoints and patrols.
05:33India's Prime Minister Modi stated,
05:50Clearly, if India can prioritize its long-term
05:52interest and work together with China for a better future for all Indian citizens, BRICS
05:57Pay will become an unstoppable force.
06:00EU foreign policy chief Mr Borrell admitted not long ago that almost everyone in the non-Western
06:06world thinks now that there are credible alternatives to the West, not only economically, but also
06:12technologically, militarily, and ideologically.
06:16According to Chinese scholar Professor Zhang Weiwei,
06:23With BRICS rising, a motor-polar world order has become an irresistible trend in history.
06:29Next, let's take a look at another Western monopoly that has been ended, the cell phone
06:35operating system.
06:36On the 22nd of October, Huawei officially launched its HarmonyOS Next, its fully self-developed
06:43terminal operating system, signaling the end of the era dominated by Android and iOS.
06:50Previously, Huawei released HarmonyOS, which still shared some Android open source code
06:56and maintained compatibility with Android applications.
06:59However, this part of Android code raises concerns, particularly after the pager and
07:05cell phone attacks in Lebanon.
07:07HarmonyOS Next featured code that is entirely developed by Chinese engineers, ensuring there
07:13has no ties to Android whatsoever.
07:16According to Guangming Daily, as of 20 October, China has over 1 billion devices powered by
07:22HarmonyOS, all of which can be upgraded to the more secure HarmonyOS Next system.
07:28Additionally, Huawei's engineers have successfully redeveloped and ported more than 15,000 applications
07:35based on HarmonyOS Next, including popular platforms like WeChat, Alipay, and Douyin.
07:41Soon after, widely used apps such as Telegram and TikTok will also be available in its app market.
07:47The level of wealth in the Chinese community is also on the rise.
07:51On the 25th of October, during the latest World Economic Outlook presentation by the
07:56International Monetary Fund, Liao Ming, China's Vice Minister of Finance, expressed confidence
08:02that China would achieve its economic growth target of around 5% for 2025.
08:08This figure is significant for the global economy, as it indicates that China's target will nearly
08:14double the Americans'.
08:15According to the Business Insider, the IMF predicts US GDP growth will slow to 2.2% in 2025,
08:22as government spending decreases and the labor market cools, leading to reduced consumption.
08:28However, for the global growth, IMF predicted to be 3.2% in 2025.
08:34This means that the United States is holding the world back.
08:37According to Reuters, the IMF also projected that Germany would see zero growth this year,
08:43a downgrade of 0.2% due to ongoing struggles in its manufacturing sector.
08:49Meanwhile, Japan's growth forecast has been lowered by 0.4% to 0.3%,
08:56reflecting the lingering effect of supply disruptions.
08:59It looks like the G7 can no longer power global growth in 2025.
09:05But the good news is that there are other BRICS countries that are driving growth along with China.
09:10The IMF has upgraded Brazil's growth forecast by 0.9%, citing stronger consumption and investments,
09:17while India's projected growth rate has also been revised upward by 0.5% compared to 2024.
09:24And that is all for today. Thank you for watching this episode of China Current.
09:28If you have any thoughts or comments about our show, please reach us at the email address below.
09:33We look forward to hearing from you and see you next time.
09:47We have a short break now, but we'll be right back. Stay with us.
09:50Welcome back to China Now. This week, geopolitics with Jeffrey Sachs,
10:04Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University,
10:09features a special guest, Leong Chun-ying,
10:12Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
10:17Both analysts will offer an overview on China's current political scenario. Enjoy.
10:36Hello, I'm Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University in New York City
10:44and also President of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
10:50This is Global Dialogue, a wonderful and very exciting opportunity for me to speak with
10:58China's leaders and shapers of China's future.
11:03And today I'm absolutely thrilled to be speaking with Chairman Leong,
11:09of course the former Chief Executive of Hong Kong in the years 2012 to 2017,
11:17and a leader of China, currently the Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the
11:23Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee, the CPPCC.
11:29And Chairman Leong, you've played a remarkable role in Hong Kong
11:38throughout the Pearl River Delta, now we call it the Greater Bay Area.
11:44So thank you so much for being together with me in this opening session of our Global Dialogue.
11:52And I would like you, with your vast experience, to share some thoughts
11:57for everybody listening about the Greater Bay Area.
12:01I can say, as I turn it over to you, that from my point of view, looking around the world,
12:08I find few if any places that can match the Greater Bay Area in the combination of skills,
12:17production, technology, finance, culture, tourism, and at a scale of around 70 million people,
12:27that can play such a remarkable dynamic role for China and with China's growing role in the world.
12:36So I'd love to hear your thoughts about this, because you've been so deeply involved
12:41in creating this integrated region and all of its remarkable advances.
12:49Professor Sachs, I'm very pleased to be with you again.
12:53You're perfectly right in describing this initiative.
12:59It is an exciting subject from the intellectual, academic, political, economic and social points of view.
13:10The key word in this initiative is integration amongst the 11 cities that exist and operate
13:23under the two separate systems in the same country, under this one country, two systems principle.
13:31I say it's very interesting academically and intellectually as well, because as you know,
13:39Hong Kong and Macau, as the two special administrative regions of China,
13:45operate a different political, social and economic system compared to our counterpart on the mainland of China,
13:55including the rest of the Greater Bay Area cities.
13:59And therefore, we have this high degree of autonomy.
14:04We are not part of the same Guangdong province as the nine Guangdong Greater Bay Area cities are.
14:12And then we have different currencies, different practices, for example,
14:17with different professional qualifications and so on and so forth.
14:24And Hong Kong and Macau are separate custom jurisdictions as well.
14:28And therefore, for people to cross the boundary and also for goods and capital to cross the boundaries into the mainland of China,
14:39including the nine Guangdong cities in the rest of the GBA and vice versa in the reverse direction,
14:47you have custom and immigration control.
14:50And so how do we maintain the same one country, two systems with high degree of autonomy principle,
14:59and at the same time achieve integration by releasing more sort of market forces into the system,
15:08has been a subject that we are studying and studying intensively for the last 10, 15 years.
15:16And we're seeing early results. And so it's very good to be having this dialogue with you and share my views with the audience.
15:25This is fantastic. I really want to understand this because I know Hong Kong is an absolutely amazing place.
15:34I've often said, if you don't love Hong Kong, you're not an economist because Hong Kong is economy.
15:42It's markets. It's finance. It's retail trade. It's absolutely dazzling.
15:49Right across the border in Guangdong province is Shenzhen.
15:55And I think Shenzhen, and I'd like to ask you about that, it's one of the most amazing development stories probably in history.
16:04Because if I'm not mistaken, 40 years ago or even more recently, Shenzhen was a village basically of maybe 25,000 people.
16:18And now it's one of the, am I right? It's 25 million today or something like that.
16:27A thousand fold increase. You watch that happen. How does it relate to Hong Kong and how did that happen?
16:36Because it's absolutely unbelievable.
16:39Well, about 45 years ago, when I was a young graduate having just left college,
16:46I together with a number of professionals in Hong Kong made trips across the boundary to Shenzhen
16:54and we helped Shenzhen establish a status as a special economic zone.
16:58And we also helped on the first city planning of Shenzhen.
17:03And we were told that they had a population target in mind of 300,000 people.
17:09And we had an interesting debate and we said, where on earth would you get 300,000 people to come and live in Shenzhen?
17:14They had, as you said, at that time, something like 25,000, 30,000 people living in the fishing and farming villages.
17:21But now today, Professor Sack, they have the highest GDP per capita amongst all cities in the mainland of China.
17:32They have higher GDP per capita than Shanghai and Beijing respectively has.
17:40Absolutely extraordinary.
17:44It has its own container port, one of the biggest in the world.
17:48It is definitely one of the high tech research and development and production centers of the whole of China.
17:56And of the world, I would say.
17:58And of the world.
18:00Recently, it serves as a shopping entertainment paradise for Hong Kong residents.
18:10I should also sort of move a little bit outside of Shenzhen to share with your audience the fact that nine cities.
18:18Yes, I would love to take a little tour of them together with you.
18:22Guangzhou, we know.
18:24But tell us about how Guangzhou is adjusting to the dynamism of this region.
18:30Is the dynamism shared across all of the nine cities in Guangdong province?
18:35Exactly.
18:36They all have their own different economic structure.
18:41Therefore, great synergy from Hong Kong's point of view as well.
18:44As you said, there are nine Guangdong cities out of the 21 that form the GBA.
18:50The other two cities are Hong Kong Macau Special Administrative Regions.
18:55So altogether, 11.
18:58Total population is 85 million people.
19:05It's even bigger than I thought.
19:07I thought it was about 70, but it's growing so fast.
19:10Yeah.
19:11And the total GDP of these nine plus two, 11 cities, is about the same size as Korea, Australia.
19:20So that's how big it is.
19:22Just beyond Shenzhen, we have a district of Guangzhou that's called Nansha.
19:30Where the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, two years ago, opened a new campus in collaboration with the Guangzhou University.
19:41It's a great university.
19:43I know you have connections to the Hong Kong UST.
19:46Yes.
19:47And I go to Nansha quite a lot.
19:50And 1.7 kilometers away from Nansha, I established, again, two years ago, a Hong Kong school for the children of Hong Kong residents in the mainland of China.
20:00It's non-profit, from grade one all the way to grade 12.
20:04And we now have 1,200 students.
20:07And Nansha is one of the three platforms on the mainland Guangdong side of the GBA that is designated as an important platform for Guangdong-Hong Kong collaboration.
20:23That is why I go there quite a lot.
20:26And Nansha is only, as I said, one of 11 districts of Guangzhou, but already it has a land area of 803 square kilometers.
20:36So that's how big it is.
20:37And it offers a new platform for Hong Kong.
20:39The throughput of containers of its port has already surpassed that of Hong Kong's.
20:45No, really?
20:48It has, literally speaking, a rocket factory in Nansha that makes the second most powerful solid-fuel rocket in the world.
21:00And it has an ultra-modern pig farm that is something like 17 stories high, also in Nansha.
21:09So you have port and the third largest shipyard is also in Nansha.
21:16So you have a pretty complete content, if that's the right word, for Hong Kong to work with.
21:25And the fast-speed train from the city center of Hong Kong, West Kowloon, going to Nansha takes only 45 minutes.
21:36So these are the ingredients for integration, better, more efficient integration, synergetic integration, under the one country, two systems, Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong with high degree autonomy principle.
21:52What I find remarkable, and again, I really don't know of another region in the world quite like it.
22:01You have world-class port services, world-class financial services, world-class production facilities, world-class technology, world-class higher education.
22:15And so, to my mind, it's really hard to think of other places that put all of this together.
22:23There are education and tech zones.
22:27I've lived in them and worked in them, Cambridge and Boston with Harvard and MIT, but it's not a great production center.
22:37It specializes in education and technology.
22:42You have Silicon Valley, which is wonderful and dynamic in education, in technology, of course, in startups, but the manufacturing is being done in Shenzhen.
22:54It's not being done in Silicon Valley so much.
22:59So it's the combination that I find absolutely remarkable.
23:05And I can imagine that these cities are really dynamically adjusting to their particular roles in all of this process.
23:19I'd be interested to understand how Hong Kong is changing through its connection with Shenzhen or with these other production centers.
23:30Is Hong Kong, as one of the world's great financial centers, naturally becoming the financier of these cities in Guangdong and continuing to play that special role, or is it doing something else?
23:48It's an extremely insightful question, if I may say so, Professor Sachs, because Hong Kong has to adjust and adapt, and Hong Kong is doing exactly that at the present time.
24:03So Hong Kong's container port used to service the mainland cities at one time, as far as Shanghai, when our truck drivers would drive boxes unloaded at the Hong Kong port all the way for a couple of days along the road to Shanghai.
24:25Now the role is being reversed because the cost of operation of the port in Shenzhen and Nansha is lower, and therefore shippers send the things that we need to these mainland ports for them to be trucked down to Hong Kong.
24:42And therefore, if you look at the number of boxes that Hong Kong handles, which has been growing, but not as fast as the mainland port, and so by way of ranking, we've been going down.
24:55We're now probably eighth or ninth largest port in the world in terms of number of boxes that were handled, but we are moving up the value chain.
25:06We are elevating our status as an international transportation that includes shipping center of China by not focusing only on port-based activities, but growing what I call desk-based shipping activities.
25:28And that would include the registration of ships. Hong Kong, under One Country, Two Systems principle, is allowed to have its own shipping register. So registration of ships, buying and selling of ships, insurance of ships, the financing of ships, and lastly, which is very important, using Hong Kong's common law system and Hong Kong's judicial system, Hong Kong's rule of law, etc.,
25:55to develop and offer our maritime legal services to the rest of the country. So the direction in which we're moving is not expanding our port-based activities, building more terminals, but developing our shipping or maritime services.
26:17Before long, you see Hong Kong developing into or having developed into the kind of shipping center the way London is. And London, as you know, it's a city that doesn't have any container port, but it's a very successful, valuable maritime services center offering the kind of services that I just mentioned.
26:41So that's the interaction between Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and the rest of the country. In the past, we sent boxes to them from our container port. Now they send boxes to us. At the same time, we are developing these services to serve the needs of China as the biggest shipping nation and the biggest shipbuilding nation in the world.
27:07Amazing. Can you describe one major choice and issue for China? And obviously, it'll be a big deal for Hong Kong as well. And that's the internationalization of the Renminbi, because China is the great saving nation of the world.
27:29China is financing a lot of investment all over the world, both officially and through official means, public means, and also, obviously, the banking sector. Hong Kong has been based, especially in Western currencies and the Hong Kong dollar, but the Renminbi were counting on playing a larger role directly in the world.
27:57The panda bond market and the ability of countries to finance their long-term infrastructure, which they're going to buy from China through Chinese saving, and ultimately, I think, through the Hong Kong financial system. So how is it going to work with the currency in the future? Hong Kong Monetary Authority obviously has a very important role to play in all of this.
28:25First of all, Hong Kong is the only international financial center of China in the true sense of this term. Secondly, Hong Kong has a separate currency from the rest of China, which is Renminbi. And Hong Kong dollar is freely convertible. Its value is packed to the US dollar.
28:51So Hong Kong dollar is as good as a US dollar. It's a US dollar proxy. And the PEC has withstood the trials and tribulations of major economic changes in the world in Hong Kong and China in the past 40 years. One US dollar equals 7.8 Hong Kong dollars, and that hasn't changed.
29:12I know. I've been coming for 40 years.
29:16That hasn't changed in 40 years.
29:18Rock solid.
29:20What's more, Hong Kong is the IPO center for mainland Chinese enterprises, ever since Tsingtao Bear came to Hong Kong in 1993, I believe.
29:33And so you have all these ingredients and you have freer flow between Hong Kong currency and RMB, Renminbi, which is a conversion. I mean, I can use this iPhone. I have a sort of WeChat Pay function that is tied to my Hong Kong credit card.
29:55A couple of days ago, I was in Nanshan and just wanted to buy some goji berries. I took out my iPhone. My QR code was screened. I was asked to sort of key in a password, so I did. And then I pressed confirm.
30:13And the money went through to the vendor through a Hong Kong based credit card in Hong Kong dollars. I know it's a very sort of low level everyday activity. I'm not talking about the billions of dollars of transaction, but these things are happening.
30:27So, as I said at the very beginning, Professor Sachs, it's a very interesting exercise intellectually and academically as well. It has a different value compared to Renminbi. We belong to the same country. We have a very close economic and financial relationship with the rest of the country.
30:45But two separate currencies, two separate convertibilities, but things are happening and the two things are coming together. And one day, I don't know when, but one day there will be a big bang. And this big bang would be very interesting for Hong Kong and for the mainland of China. I think it will be mutually beneficial too.
31:07Well, one thing that I'm very interested in and very supportive of is the Belt and Road Initiative, because I view this as a major contribution of China to economic development in partner countries throughout ASEAN, Africa, Western Asia, and so forth.
31:33And so I'm always arguing for an even bigger Belt and Road. Now, I've also been always recommending that it should be a green Belt and Road. In other words, really promoting electric vehicles, electric fast rail, 5G, which I'm told is no longer 5G, but it's 5.5G, and so forth.
31:59It does seem to me that the Greater Bay Area can really be a leading edge of an even expanded Belt and Road Initiative. And one place that I'd like to see that expansion is in Southeast Asia, because I think the ASEAN countries are naturally linked to the same economic region as China.
32:23And it's a great fit and will be very good for development of the ASEAN countries for their low carbon energy systems, for their transport, for hydrogen economy, and so on.
32:35And I'm wondering, from a policy point of view, can we see the Greater Bay Area taking a kind of lead in Belt and Road style initiatives in the world? Because the Greater Bay Area offers finance, it offers the tech, it offers the infrastructure, manufacturing, and so forth.
32:58So it does seem to me to be really a great way for China to expand this program.
33:06First of all, ASEAN is the second largest trading partner of Hong Kong. ASEAN stands for, for the benefit of your audience, if I might, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is an economic trade bloc.
33:26Hong Kong has a free trade agreement with ASEAN. It wasn't an easy negotiation process. That happened when I was our chief secretary. We had to negotiate with all 10 member nations.
33:38Oh, very good.
33:41In the end, we made it. The mainland of China is our biggest trading partner. But the next one, next largest, is ASEAN. And ASEAN, at the same time, is the biggest trading partner of China as a whole. And Hong Kong is the perfect super connector.
33:59I agree.
34:00The rest of China and the rest of the world, and that includes ASEAN. And ASEAN, as an economic bloc, has one of the highest economic growths, even in recent years when the rest of the world has been impacted by COVID and various other things.
34:19And Hong Kong people have very close family and social connections to the peoples of the 10 member nations of ASEAN. So these are the factors that we are bringing to bear on Hong Kong's role right between the GBA Guangdong cities and the ASEAN nations.
34:45We're seeing increases of trade and other activities very quickly. A couple of days ago, I was on the plane from Hong Kong flying to Ningxia, which is a Muslim autonomous region in the northwestern part of China.
35:02I know Ningxia, actually. I've been visiting there.
35:07I sent you a bottle of wine. The wines are now really getting popular. But anyway, I came across a Malaysian tour group going to Ningxia.
35:20And the tour leader told me that 80% of tourists leaving Malaysia for overseas holidays, 80% go to China, not counting Singapore. Singapore obviously is very close to Malaysia.
35:38And this is partly because China has waived unilaterally entry visa requirements for Malaysian passport holders. China is continuing to open up. And one of the features is the unilateral waiving of visa requirements for dozens of foreign countries.
36:03And for foreign nationals, including American nationals who have taken up residence in Hong Kong for seven years or more, who automatically become—you don't need to swear an oath of allegiance to China, none of that business.
36:19But for any foreign national, including American nationals who have lived in Hong Kong for seven years or more, taking Hong Kong as their principal place of residence becomes automatically a permanent resident of Hong Kong.
36:35So you maintain your U.S. nationality, but you become a U.S. national with permanent residency status in Hong Kong. And with that status, recently, you get the benefit of not having to use your U.S. passport or British passport or Australian passport with a visa on it to go to the mainland China.
36:59Uh-huh. Very attractive.
37:02You are given a card, an entry card, which you swipe at the barrier, and then you walk through. That's another feature of China continuing to open up to the outside world.
37:15We are seeing a lot more foreign nationals who are permanent residents of Hong Kong using that facility, going to places like Shenzhen for shopping, to have a good time in a restaurant, to play golf, or going to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to teach.
37:37As I said, we're going through a very interesting period of integration and transformation. What Hong Kong would like to do is to share not just these insights, but also these facilities with our friends in other parts of the country. Come to Hong Kong and pop over to Shenzhen or Nansha for a few hours and come back.
38:01You know, it makes so much sense. The Americans complain that China has overcapacity, they say. And I think it's a funny new term, because what it really means is China has great capacity, and that great capacity is raising living standards and also making a huge positive impact on the partner countries.
38:29Let me ask you, perhaps as the last question, it was a little bit strange to me that there were murmurs of pessimism about Hong Kong. What's going to happen to Hong Kong? What's Hong Kong's future?
38:42But it seems absolutely the contrary, that Hong Kong's role is even more dynamic than ever because of this incredible dynamism throughout China, and including immediately in the Greater Bay Area. So it only seems to me to be a cause for excitement.
39:02Hong Kong's safe and sound. Hong Kong faces the same challenges that many other open global economies face. But otherwise, we're doing well. We're doing well under one country to assist some Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy.
39:20I think the best way to dispel these, I believe, often politically driven arguments against the future of Hong Kong is to come and visit us. I'd love to see all, including our friends in America, come to see Hong Kong for yourself.
39:42COVID is over. American nationals coming to Hong Kong do not need a visa. And I'd love to show you around in the neighborhood of Hong Kong too, as I said, Tsuen Wan, Nha Trang, other GBA cities.
40:01And you have to be in these, what I call, neighborhood cities of Hong Kong to understand the purpose of Hong Kong, the forte of Hong Kong, and also, therefore, the future of Hong Kong. I'd love to do that with you too, Professor Sachs.
40:21Chairman Leong, I hope I can take you up on that. I mean, that's my plan. And I'd love to have that opportunity to visit some of the neighborhood with you as well. It would be a great treat and a great privilege.
40:34Thank you so much for sharing your, actually, decades of leadership in bringing about this integration, this remarkable dynamism, this growth of an absolutely unique and fascinating part of the world.
40:56So, Chairman Leong, thank you for being with me on Global Dialogue. I so much appreciate it and look forward to seeing you in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area very soon.
41:09Professor Sachs, it's my privilege. See you in Hong Kong.
41:25And this was another episode of Shining Out, a show that opens the window to the present and future of the Asian giant. Hope you enjoy it. See you next time.