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00:00Hello, Telesur English presents a new episode of China Now, a Wave Media's production that
00:14showcases the culture, technology and politics of the Asian giant.
00:19In this first segment, China Currents dives into the top stories of the week, like the
00:23closure of the 9th Asian Winter Games and how Egypt is entrusting its skies to China.
00:29Let's take a look.
00:35China Currents is a weekly news talk show from China to the world.
00:38We cover viral news about China every week and also give you the newest updates on China's
00:44cutting-edge technologies.
00:46Let's get started.
00:55Welcome to China Currents, your weekly news report on the latest developments in China.
00:59I'm Chris, and in this episode, Egypt entrusted its skies to China.
01:06China's most powerful tech giant bets on deep-seek.
01:09The 9th Asian Winter Games closes after historic achievements in China.
01:14First let's fly to Cairo.
01:17According to Egypt Daily News, on February 13th, Egypt received its first batch of J-10
01:22CE fighter jets from China.
01:24In the past, the Egyptian Air Force has long been a key customer of NATO fighter jets.
01:29Of the 340 fighter jets it operates, 218 are US-made F-16s and 24 are French Rafales.
01:38Acquiring Chinese fighter jets will incur substantial additional costs such as upgrading
01:42communication and command systems, armaments, and personal training.
01:45However, Egypt still decided to shift its military procurement strategy by choosing
01:50Chinese aircraft over traditional Western suppliers.
01:54Because it sees a major flaw in these multi-billion dollar military assets purchased from Western
01:59military-industrial complexes.
02:01The flaw lies in the double standards Western countries apply when dealing with Israel and
02:06other Middle Eastern nations.
02:08According to the Defense Post, due to restrictions from the US over concerns about the country's
02:13human rights violations and regional conflicts, Egypt's F-16s still carry outdated avionics
02:19and M7P missiles, a product from the 1980s with a mere 70km firing range.
02:26It's worth noting that the Israeli Air Force also operates F-16s, but these are equipped
02:32with M120 missiles, which have a range of 170km, that's 100km longer than Egypt's.
02:40This disparity means that in a hypothetical aerial battle, the Egyptians would be terminated
02:45before they even started to fight.
02:47Neutering key components in military technology would not only reduce combat effectiveness
02:52of weapons, but may even directly kill soldiers operating them.
02:56Ukrainian ace pilot Alexei Mest, known by the callsign Moonfish, who passed F-16 training,
03:02which normally takes years to complete, in just six months.
03:06That's how good he was.
03:07However, in August 2024, he was killed by friendly fire from the Patriot air defense
03:13system.
03:14The Wall Street Journal suggests that this tragedy may have been caused by the absence
03:18of the Link-16 tactical network of the Patriot missile systems delivered to Ukraine.
03:24Link-16 is a communication system used for friend or foe identification, but because
03:29Washington believes such an advanced technology is too sensitive to give out, even to its
03:35ally, this crucial component was withheld by the US in its military assistance to Ukraine.
03:40And that reluctance cost the life of Ukraine's best pilot.
03:44Egypt operates the world's second largest fleet of F-16s after Turkey.
03:49This once made Egypt a formidable force in the Middle East.
03:53However, as the US continues to support Israel, which is its original destabilizer and exacerbates
03:59this power imbalance through double standards, Egypt has little choice but to turn to China.
04:05And China is willing to provide Egypt with advanced missiles that can help safeguard
04:09its nation.
04:11J-10CE is equipped with PL-15 long-range air-to-air missiles capable of engaging targets up to
04:18300 km away.
04:20This capability allows Egypt to intercept hostile aircraft and neutralize aerial threats
04:25before they reach its airspace.
04:27The J-10CE can also carry 5.6 tons of missiles or bombs and achieve speeds up to Mach 1.8
04:34With a combat radius of 550 km, it can easily cover the 400 km distance between Cairo and
04:41Tel Aviv.
04:42This means that if Israel hosts an airshow, Egypt's J-10CE will only need 11 minutes
04:48to bring plenty of gifts to the party.
04:50What is even more frustrating is that these intentional performance restrictions imposed
04:55by Western countries, often accompanied by unreasonably high prices.
05:00Since the 1980s, Egypt has paid over $6 billion to purchase 218 outdated F-16s.
05:07Washington used to offer Cairo an upgraded version, the F-16V, but with a hefty price
05:12tag.
05:13For instance, the US sold 66 F-16Vs to Taiwan for $8 billion, equating to $121 million per
05:22unit.
05:23In contrast, Pakistan signed a $1.4 billion deal with China in 2009 to buy 36 J-10s at
05:30a unit price of just $39 million.
05:34Egypt's French Rafales jets are even more expensive.
05:37The total cost of the 24 Rafales in service, along with another 30 yet to be delivered,
05:42amounts to $10.2 billion.
05:45This is not the first time the Rafales have faced competition from China's J-10s.
05:49Apart from Egypt, India is another significant customer of these jets, and their main imaginary
05:54enemy is Pakistan's J-10s.
05:57Amin Mukherjee, an assistant professor in the security studies program at the National
06:01Institute of Advanced Studies in India, argues that the J-10s are not comparable to the Rafales,
06:07particularly due to Rafale's Superior Meteor Missile, which is a strong data link.
06:12However, according to BulgarianMilitary.com, attempts to equip Egyptian Rafales with the
06:17Meteor Missile, which has a range exceeding 100 km, have reportedly been blocked by Western
06:24powers, influenced by Israel's concern about maintaining its military superiority in the
06:28region.
06:29While Israel may have the same concerns about China's J-10 fighters and its PL-15 missiles,
06:34Beijing apparently doesn't care.
06:36As Egypt Daily News concluded, by integrating Chinese aircraft, Egypt reduces its vulnerability
06:42to future arms embargoes or restrictions and improves its defense capabilities.
06:48Next up, a big move for DeepSeek.
06:51On February 16th, Chinese tech giant Tencent announced that it's testing an integration
06:56of DeepSeek into WeChat.
06:58In a current beta test, users can access DeepSeek by clicking the AI search option in the WeChat
07:03search bar.
07:05WeChat is China's largest messaging app, and this cooperation is the biggest win-win for
07:09both companies.
07:11According to BacklinkoStatistics, as of January 2025, DeepSeek originally had only about 30
07:17million users, and WeChat has 1.4 billion users worldwide.
07:23The cooperation with WeChat means that DeepSeek's user base has skyrocketed 46 times overnight.
07:30For an open-source AI, this is crucial.
07:32On the one hand, every real human user can help AI optimize its own algorithm and better
07:38understand people's real needs.
07:40According to a Tencent representative, one can use the full version of the DeepSeek R1
07:45model for free, offering a more diverse search experience.
07:49A leaked screenshot suggests that the AI can generate intelligent article summaries and
07:54provide personalized recommendations.
07:56The daily needs of 1 billion Chinese netizens will transform DeepSeek into an AI that can
08:02better serve the people.
08:04On the other hand, since DeepSeek challenged the US AI hegemony, cyber attacks against
08:09it have never stopped, resulting in users' requests often being unable to be processed
08:14due to busy servers.
08:16Tencent's servers handle more than 1 billion Chinese netizens' chat, video calls, and mobile
08:20payments every day.
08:22Its server area and professional security team, which have been built for many years,
08:26are enough to provide DeepSeek with an environment immune to malicious attacks in a WeChat app.
08:32On February 14, UBS Group released a report suggesting Tencent could be undervalued due
08:37to its AI potential.
08:39The bank included Tencent on its key recommendations list for the Asia-Pacific region, giving it
08:44a buy rating with a target price of HK$593.
08:49Moving on, on February 14, the 9th Asian Winter Games concluded in Harbin, China.
08:55This year's game is the largest in history, attracting a record of 1,275 athletes from
09:0034 countries and regions to compete.
09:03China sent a record-breaking delegation of 170 athletes, participating in 70 events,
09:09the most the country has ever fielded at Asian Winter Games.
09:12Among them, the oldest competitor is the 40-year-old color Xu Xiaoming, while the youngest is the
09:1716-year-old freestyle skier Chen Xuezheng.
09:21By the time the games concluded on February 14, Team China had racked up an impressive
09:2585 medals, including 32 golds, securing the top sport on the medal table.
09:30China dominated speed skating, claiming 11 out of the 14 gold medals.
09:35Chinese skaters Ning Zhongyan and Gao Tianyu also set new Asian records in the 1,000-meter
09:40and 100-meter events, respectively.
09:42Meanwhile, in ski mountaineering, one of the new events added for the upcoming Milan Winter
09:47Olympics, China swept all nine medals across three events.
09:52But it's not just Team China making waves in winter sports.
09:56Public enthusiasm for skiing and snowboarding has surged in recent years.
10:00The 2023-24 winter season saw 23 million ski trips made across the country, a 16% increase
10:07from the previous year.
10:09China is now home to 719 operational ski resorts.
10:13That's the most in any country on the planet.
10:16In fact, 6 out of the 10 largest indoor ski facilities in the world are in China, in cities
10:21like Shanghai, Harbin, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
10:25And that's all for today.
10:26Thank you for watching this episode of China Currents.
10:28If you have any thoughts and comments, please reach us at the email address below.
10:32We look forward hearing from you and see you next time.
10:59We have a short break now, but don't go away, we'll be right back.
11:12Welcome back to China Now.
11:14Today, Overlap welcomes Bernardo Mendia, Secretary General of the Portugal-China Chamber of Commerce
11:20and Industry, together with Shengyi, Professor of International Politics at Fudan University.
11:26Let's see.
11:28Hello, Professor Chen.
11:39Thank you very much for this opportunity.
11:41It is an honor for me to have this opportunity to dialogue with you and discuss some of the
11:50important topics for the relationship between Portugal, the European Union and China.
11:57Hello, Bernardo.
11:58It's my great pleasure to meet you here again online and wish we can have better understandings
12:04on these things and finding out what should be the proper directions and ways to improve
12:09bilateral triangle relationships, which is very, maybe one of the most important relationships
12:16in today's world.
12:21My feeling is positive because I think it's difficult to be worse than it was before.
12:26So it's a new start, it's a new beginning, it's a new opportunity.
12:30I think we should take it from there because everything is starting from zero.
12:34We know that both President Trump and President Xi Jinping already talked on the phone.
12:44We know that the vice from China is also attending the ceremony today.
12:50So I think it is positive.
12:53We should put our hope, but of course, I would like to know what the professor has to say
12:59about this.
13:00Yes.
13:01I think that we can have a cautious optimistic for the future development of our two countries.
13:11It's quite clear and we already see some positive signals.
13:16It seemed that at least rhetorically, Trump said that he wants to have a better relationship
13:24with China.
13:25And he said that he has better understanding on these things and he believed that if China
13:31and the United States can cooperate, we can solve a lot of things.
13:35But of course, we know that one of the, maybe the only certainties from Trump's side is
13:41the uncertainty.
13:43These guys changed his word very rapidly and maybe the next moment, he will have new ideas
13:51on these bilateral relationships or on some big issues.
13:56From China's side, I think we have the reason to keep a cautious optimistic because China's
14:02side make quite good preparations for Trump's second terms in White House.
14:10Our top leaders already make decisions to keep and ensure that he has a personal direct
14:19dialogue and communication channels with Trump so that these two guys, they can directly
14:24change their personal ideas and informations.
14:29And we know such kind of good relationship between these two top leaders will make some
14:34help to our bilateral relationships.
14:38And the second, de factoly, I think that just as Bernard mentioned, actually we nearly
14:43starting from zero, which means that the Biden administration do lots of things that will
14:49do damage to bilateral relationships, even if he only have no more than one month in
14:56the White House, he released a lot of stupid policies.
15:01But on the other side, I can say that we have nothing to lose.
15:05We nearly can begin our bilateral relationship in Trump's new terms, nearly from white papers,
15:14we can try to push forward any possible positive progress, maybe as tiny as possible.
15:22And during the dialogue, I mean, the call, Trump released a lot of lists from the Fintanys
15:30to maybe the governance of new technologies and how to ensure the new balance between
15:37our trade.
15:39Maybe it's not new questions, but at least he already showed that he has kind of willingness
15:45to push forward the cooperations.
15:48From China's side, you will find that one of the most important positive element to
15:54ensure the stability and the constructive development of this bilateral relationship
15:59is China already form a quite stable guiding principles.
16:03We named the three guiding principles to this US and China relationship, including the mutual
16:10respect, a peaceful coexistence, and try to ensure the joint development and the joint
16:20prosperities between our two countries and to the world.
16:24I think we have the reason to keep a very cautious, but a little bit optimistic attitude
16:32to wish and to respect that in this new four years, when Trump in the White House, we can
16:41have, in certain aspect, better relationships, if possible.
16:47Yes, Professor, I agree with you.
16:49And thank you for bringing in the cautious factor.
16:53Of course, we should be cautious.
16:55And what makes me optimistic, it's also the fact that Trump is very pragmatic and he knows
17:04there is a lot of common ground as well.
17:06And there are a lot of challenges like you just mentioned now.
17:11There are also common ground within the three principles that were mentioned.
17:16There is a lot of common ground.
17:18And because Trump is so pragmatic and because he understands that if China and the US are
17:29aligned, he will have more to win with that, including in other, eventually other geographies,
17:38eventually other technological areas.
17:40He knows that if he cooperates, that US and China together can do a lot, not only for
17:46themselves, but they can also do a lot for the world as a whole.
17:50And I'm talking now about pollution wars and there's a lot of things that can be done and
17:54can be achieved together.
17:56And I'm so hopeful.
17:57Of course, I cannot predict the future, but I'm really hopeful that this pragmatic view
18:02and the independence of President Trump, from other thoughts that we know that prevail a
18:08lot in the American administration, that this independence of thinking can prevail.
18:15I'm very hopeful, of course, but I understand we need to, of course, we need to be cautious
18:21and we need to think about all the possible scenarios.
18:24But it's great that China on the other end is so stable on the view that they have of
18:30the international relations on the three principles and not only, because it brings a lot of stability.
18:37However, I still remain optimistic.
18:41Yeah, I agree with you that Trump's pragmatic attitude and his style like a businessman,
18:51which means focusing on the real and objective interests, rather than those a little bit
18:56ideological issues, will help us to keep optimistic to the future development.
19:04But on the other side, we have to understand we have some kind of, I can name it, structural
19:12obstacles inside the United States.
19:15Trump, his personality may be focusing on this practical attitude and focusing on the
19:22real interest and the common ground between China and the United States.
19:25But his team, including some unstable hawkish peoples, which may be focusing more on these
19:33ideological or so-called traditional or classical geopolitical attitude or views toward China,
19:42which will treat China more as a kind of so-called advisories or those challenges to U.S. hegemonies
19:50rather than practical peer-to-peer cooperation, strategic partners.
19:56And one more thing is I feel a little bit of concern from the obstacles or challenges
20:03that were raised from the U.S. Congress, because in his structures, the Congress and the White House,
20:09they need to check and balance with each other.
20:12And since the first term, it's more and more signals that the U.S. Congress want to have
20:19more powers or try to keep the dominant positions to deal with the Sino-U.S. strategic relationships
20:29by taking advantages of Congress power by making laws.
20:33If they pass some laws, it will make it difficult for the U.S. president to pass by these laws.
20:41While at the same time, so I don't think that though Trump has more influentials and has more
20:49personal powers comparing to the first terms inside the GOP, I mean, the Republican Party itself,
20:57but there are some politicians, including even the Congress spokesman Johnson and those senators
21:04represented by Tom Corden, these guys, they have quite different attitude and views on China issues
21:12comparing to Trump. So maybe in future, we will have such kind of not new, but quite classical
21:20scenarios. On certain issues, Trump and Chinese government, our top leaders, they can dialogue and
21:28cooperate during their summit and got some agreement, United States providing some promise
21:35that he will do something constructive, cooperative to push forward these bilateral relationships,
21:42but he cannot deliver his promise. When he go back to United States, the U.S. Congress will
21:50stop him from deliver or transfer his promise from paper to the real practice. And that will add
22:00more, not only the uncertainties to bilateral relationships, but will do damage to this bilateral
22:06trust. That's a little bit regret that in quite a long time, it's not the first time that Sino-U.S.
22:13face such kind of challenges. Even in the 1990s, we always see that when U.S. president go to China,
22:22they can have good dialogue, make good statement, but when the president go back to United States,
22:29they were passing by some new laws or new policy files, which moving to the just opposite positions
22:36or directions, which inputs more negative elements to these bilateral relationships.
22:45I feel just like you mentioned, I feel also a little bit cautious,
22:51optimistic attitude on these Sino-U.S. relationships in his second terms, but
22:58just wait and see which we can got more better signals, more better real actions in these
23:07relations in the future times. Yes. And we've just had one signal that comes on the
23:15right direction with the TikTok announcement that they will issue an executive order to
23:22to go back in this decision that was effective yesterday. So I think that's a positive one.
23:31And then going back to what you're saying, yes, I agree there are many obstacles.
23:37But then again, also important to remind that the personality of the leaders in each circumstance
23:46are very, very important, their own thought, you know, to eventually to fight and change
23:53what is a pure ideology, because it's not something that comes out of the rational.
23:59It's something that comes out of deep-seated emotions that do not have an adherence to the
24:07reality and to the interest of the United States, actually, or Europe, if we go to Europe and talk
24:12about Europe afterwards. And I think Trump has the conditions to do that, just like, and I like
24:19to remind this case, because I always like to talk about this case, just like John F. Kennedy in 1963,
24:26when he made the peace speech and he completely changed the relationship and the development
24:33of nuclear tests between, in the whole world, but first with that speech between
24:40USA and Russia. And I believe that Trump has the potential to do something as
24:46powerful as this. And I'm very hopeful, of course, but I totally agree with you, lots of challenges.
24:53And so I can only cross my fingers. Yeah, I also need to cross my fingers. About this TikTok, I can
25:00add you more information on these things. First, yes, you can say that when Trump say that
25:07he has some ideas to resolve these problems, and after nearly less than one day shut down,
25:14the TikTok reopened in the United States. It's kind of good, positive signals on one side.
25:21But on the other side, TikTok is also a very classic case, because first, Trump is the first
25:27guy who really threatened that either you will sell it out or I will ban you in the United States
25:34when he in first term in White House. Of course, nowadays he has different ideas. He find that
25:41definitely TikTok is a good tool for him. And also you can say it's a good tool for the GOP
25:47to become more influential inside US young generations. But when you're talking about
25:53more detailed, which can be delivered technical solutions for these questions, it's a lot of
25:59challenges. Actually, if you read what TikTok already done in the United States, try to
26:07fulfill the requirement raised by the United States, they already fit for these so-called
26:13capital structures of the companies. Actually, there's more than 50% of capital structure come
26:20from United States, not from China. But of course, the real challenge is based on the governance
26:25structures. Red line of the TikTok is quite clear. It will never be sold, which means it will never
26:32lose its control of these companies. It will be mission impossible, which did not quite complicated
26:40to understand because according to the basic commercial rules, the founding fathers of these
26:46companies, definitely it's his own right properties. You cannot just label him with so-called
26:53national threat and coercion him to sell it out to other peoples. That's not the way, proper way
27:01to doing business. But whether US can go back to these common ground or common sense based
27:10business problem or principles to solve these issues. Another more tougher challenges come
27:16from the US politics because the law, which providing a law basement inside the United States
27:25to ask either TikTok will be sold out or banned inside the United States, it's already been passed.
27:31It has become a law. Trump did not have the power to suspend this law or to just cancel it.
27:38It may send some administrative files to make some balance, but it's quite complicated because
27:48the spokesman Johnson already say that he believe that their understanding Trump's decision
27:58is based on the assumption that finally TikTok will be sold to a new American buyers.
28:05And in that preconditions, maybe they could allow these companies to have more times to deal with
28:14this purchasement. But that's not the ideas come from the TikTok. And also more, maybe worse
28:22information come from Senator Cotton. He and his colleagues already make a joint statement
28:30in the last Sunday in the United States. They say that there's no space for so-called suspend
28:38or stop deployment, deliver for this law, according to the text files of this law passing
28:47by the Congress and assigned by Biden and the president. So that's a very tougher challenges.
28:54And also last, of course, not the least, when Trump say that I have a new ideas,
29:01we want to save this TikTok and we will have ventures talking about the capital structures.
29:09He did not make any communication with TikTok. Even he did not make a very successful inside
29:18communications with his people inside the US Congress. So we still need to wait and see.
29:25But I agree with you that this TikTok can be a very good starting point or starting case to find
29:32out whether this guy has enough capacities and the wellness to input more constructive elements
29:40in this Sino and US relationship in his new terms. And we just continue, we'll keep observing
29:48the latest development of this case. Very well. Yes, I agree. I agree particularly
29:55with the fact that this case can be very relevant to understand what is effective power to manage
30:09the Congress and all the complexities of the decision making process in the US.
30:18We worry about that because tariffs and protectionism are terrible for the well-being
30:27of people in general. So hopefully there will be now a new assessment. We're not in the electoral
30:35period anymore. Now is the becoming today is becoming effective is power. So let's see what
30:43is going to do now. This has been very useful because it has shown to the local European
30:53leaders that they should manage the relationship they have with the rest of the world and not be
31:01so dependent of one country. This is about what has been claimed before in the relationship between
31:08Europe and China actually to manage the risk. The risking is a basic management tool. It's
31:17managing risk. You call it the risking to put a negative factor in the world, but it's actually
31:24managing the risk. You should be neutral in your economic relationship and you should have a good
31:33relationship with all sides because as we can see things keep changing and the circumstances
31:41are different every four or five years, sometimes even less than that. So we should manage the
31:49relationship. We should also consider and respect the past relationship when it's good and beneficial
31:57especially, which is the case between Europe and China. So I think this was a wake-up call
32:06for the European leaders that they should manage more carefully the relationship, put aside
32:14the non-rational ideology and bring aboard a more rational approach which puts the interest
32:24of the people first. This is the most important. The politicians, they are the leaders, they have
32:29a very specific mandate which is the well-being of the people. So if we have a good relationship
32:34with all countries, the US, China and every country in the world, this can only bring us
32:40more benefit. It will bring us more space to talk, to discuss and to make our interest
32:49be more easily achieved than if we keep talking about either ideology or if we keep forgetting
32:55the interest of the people. If we have more difficulty to do business with the US,
33:04of course that the European politicians will have more room even from the public opinion, you know,
33:12because that's the most important for the European leaders is the public opinion.
33:16Then they will have more room to work more with China. Just recently,
33:27the US has issued some limitations to the trade of ships with some European countries,
33:33including Portugal. So you can imagine the feeling of the Portuguese people with this kind of
33:41a measure is taken, you know, by a friendly, supposedly it's a friendly country. We are
33:49We are
34:10interested in the well-being of our people. I think that it's very interesting questions
34:15to understand or to make some imaginations of possible scenarios between US,
34:21China and the European unions in Trump's second teams. I agree with you that this tariff things,
34:28the European unions need to focus on its own interest because the rising Trump's
34:35preference of the tariff and the so-called the MAGA make America great again or put America
34:42at the first positions. Effectively speaking, it's nothing more than a new terms for the quite
34:48traditional or even classic trade protectionisms in certain aspect. And we all know that such
34:56kind of practices will not solve the problems. But I think that will be the first challenges
35:03both China and the European unions will face in the second Trump's team. This guy,
35:08he just believe in himself and it will be difficult for him to upgrade his
35:17knowledge systems about how to doing business, how to doing international relationships in the year
35:242025 or in the 21st century. This guy, his understanding of business, of this international
35:33relationship, you can find that he just lived in the world in the maybe late 18th or late 19th
35:43centuries in which that the countries, they doing business, they making their own factory and
35:51productions in a completely different ways. I think there'll be a very tough challenges because
35:57it means we need to sometimes we'll feel that we waste, we need to input too much times to persuade
36:04these guys. But these guys may be mission impossible to persuade. You need to conflict
36:09with them in certain ways to such kind of conflict will become a wake up call for these guys to call
36:17back his pragmatic attitude on this or to take a more practical attitude to deal with this complex
36:25problems, the first. And the second, I feel a little bit concerned about domestic political
36:33elements or structures inside the European unions. I mean, all those main state, member state of the
36:40EU, because from China's perspective, I highly agree with Bernard say that maybe the first
36:48priority of European countries, they need to put aside those irrational ideological elements
36:56aside to separate it from the more practical, objective, core interest of European countries
37:07so that we can deal with this difference of problems in practical ways, we can separate
37:13different things. Nowadays, I think that we can also keep a cautious optimistic because we find
37:21some signals, those big companies, they transfer their industry capacities from European unions
37:28to China, so that they can continue their productions here. But on the other side,
37:34Bernard, you said that you are in Brazil, that it will be difficult to find those positive
37:41improvement of Brazil's, they still also focusing too much on this. In my personal opinion,
37:48is quite irrational, ideological elements dominated their understanding on these bilateral and
37:59multilateral relationships between China, European unions and United States. It seems that these guys
38:06or at least some of these European unions, top politicians, they would will to continue their
38:14unbalanced, even unilateral driven preference toward the United States and accept every
38:23requirement raised by the United States, no matter how improper it is, how sometimes ridiculous it is,
38:33they will just accept these ideas, make some very soft blame or complain about this
38:41irrational or ridiculous requirement, and then just keep their strategy and policy unchanged.
38:49That made Chinese people feel confused, sometimes feel just deep regret because it just wastes
39:00not only times, but also opportunities and the trust we used to have toward the European
39:09peoples and the countries. I think that should be a problem. Do you have any ideas how to
39:16solve these issues? And, or can you help us to finding out more positive signals or elements
39:24from your inside European unions or inside countries like Portuguese, so that we can
39:30become more confident to our future relationships? Yeah, my first advice would be to be optimistic,
39:38more than an advice is a request. Please be patient. Then besides some parts of the
39:53politicians, not leaders, but politicians, it's very much ideological, as you say, and it's very
40:00good for the media. So it's easy talk, you know, to not be nice to China. Then there is also,
40:13in my opinion, of course, some blindness regarding following the allies of what they consider the
40:23allies. There is some blindness in that, because the blindness should be only put on following the
40:29interests of the European people. And as to, besides a little bit of patience, I think it
40:37is very important, the diplomatic work, the work of the lobbying, namely here in Brussels,
40:46because more than nowadays, more than 50% of all the laws that are made in my own country,
40:53Portugal, they actually come from Brussels. So we don't do anything. And they don't come
40:58from the parliament. They come from the commission, which is not even elected.
41:02So, and this is the internal problem we have. And we have different views about this. In my opinion,
41:07it should not be like that. It should be made by the parliament, not the commission. But
41:11what you can do to help, besides being a little bit patient, is a lot of communication,
41:21a lot of diplomacy and a lot of lobbying. Because I believe that if we explain
41:31rationally the position of China, and if we keep talking, keep leaving the door open to find
41:42opportunities, to bring mutual benefits, to go back and try to do the investment agreement between
41:51Europe and China again, all of this. And then again, it's also about the leadership.
41:57Nowadays, we have in Europe, the president of the council is a Portuguese, Antonio Costa.
42:03He just took over this position. He was an important person in a phase of huge Chinese
42:16investment in Portugal, when Portugal went through a very difficult moment. We almost
42:21bankrupt, actually, after the financial crisis of 2008. At the time, we've had the Troika,
42:28which was the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
42:37They lent us 76 billion euros in exchange of a very hard program, including privatizing several
42:48companies. These companies went to international bids and the Chinese companies were the ones that
42:55valued most our companies that were being privatized. We also had other types of help
43:04from China at the time. Antonio Costa has experienced all of that. He knows the benefits
43:13of a win-win relationship. On the other hand, he was also the prime minister at the time
43:21that Huawei was banned, not banned, but it was restricted in Portugal, was very restricted
43:29and still is. So, at the time, probably eyeing this position.