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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02:13human rights violations and regional conflicts, Egypt's F-16s still carry outdated avionics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 M-7P 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 M-120 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 6 months, that'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
03:34ally, 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.
03:45Egypt 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
04:35With 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
05:21unit.
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 Backlinko statistics, 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 14th, 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 14th, 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 that
09:09most of the country has ever fielded at Asian Winter Games.
09:12Among them, the oldest competitor is the 40-year-old curler Xu Xiaoming, while the youngest is
09:17the 16-year-old freestyle skier Chen Xuezheng.
09:21By the time the games concluded on February 14th, 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 Tingyu also set new Asian records in the 1,000-meter
09:40and 100-meter events, respectively.
09:43Meanwhile, 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 the 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.
11:13Welcome back to China Now.
11:15Today, Overlap welcomes Bernardo Mendia, Secretary General of the Portugal-China Chamber of Commerce
11:21and Industry, together with Shengyi, Professor of International Politics at Fudan University.
11:27Let's see.
11:38Hello, Professor Chen.
11:40Thank you very much for this opportunity.
11:42It is an honor for me to have this opportunity to dialogue with you and discuss some of the
11:51important topics for the relationship between Portugal, the European Union and China.
11:58Hello, Bernardo.
11:59It's my great pleasure to meet you here again online and wish we can have better understandings
12:05on these things and finding out what should be the proper directions and ways to improve
12:11bilateral triangle relationships, which is maybe one of the most important relationships
12:17in today's world.
12:22My feeling is positive because I think it's difficult to be worse than it was before.
12:27So it's a new start, it's a new beginning, it's a new opportunity.
12:31I think we should take it from there because everything is starting from zero.
12:35We know that both President Trump and President Xi Jinping already talked on the phone.
12:45We know that the vice from China is also attending the ceremony today.
12:51So I think it is positive.
12:54We should put our hope, but of course, I would like to know what the professor has to say
13:00about this.
13:01Yes.
13:02I think that we can be cautious, optimistic for the future development of our two countries.
13:12It's quite clear and we already see some positive signals.
13:17It seems that at least rhetorically, Trump says that he wants to have a better relationship
13:25with China.
13:26And he says that he has a better understanding on these things and he believes that if China
13:32and the United States can cooperate, we can solve a lot of things.
13:36But of course, we know that one of the, maybe the only certainties from Trump's side is
13:42uncertainty.
13:44These guys change his word very rapidly and maybe the next moment he will have new ideas
13:52on these bilateral relationships or on some big issues.
13:57From China's side, I think we have the reason to keep a cautious optimistic because China's
14:03side make quite good preparations for Trump's second terms in White House.
14:11Our top leaders already make decisions to keep and ensure that he has a personal direct
14:20dialogue and communication channels with Trump so that these two guys, they can directly
14:25change their personal ideas and informations.
14:30And we know such kind of good relationship between these two top leaders will make some
14:35help to our bilateral relationships.
14:39And the second, de factoly, I think that just as Bernard mentioned, actually we nearly
14:44starting from zero, which means that the Biden administration do lots of things that will
14:50do damage to bilateral relationships.
14:53Even if he only have no more than one month in the White House, he released a lot of stupid
15:00policies.
15:02But on the other side, I can say that we have nothing to lose.
15:06We nearly can begin our bilateral relationship in Trump's new terms.
15:13Nearly from white papers, we can try to push forward any possible positive progress, maybe
15:22as tiny as possible.
15:23And during the dialogue, I mean the call, Trump released a lot of lists from the Fintanys
15:31to maybe the governance of new technologies and how to ensure the new balance between
15:38our trade.
15:40Maybe it's not new questions, but at least he already showed that he has kind of willingness
15:46to push forward the cooperation.
15:49From China's side, you will find that one of the most important positive element to
15:55ensure the stability and the constructive development of this bilateral relationship
16:00is China already form a quite stable guiding principles.
16:04We named the three guiding principles to this US and China relationship, including the mutual
16:11respect, a peaceful coexistence, and try to ensure the joint development and the joint
16:21prosperities between our two countries and to the world.
16:25I think we have the reason to keep a very cautious, but a little bit optimistic attitude
16:33to 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.
16:48Yes, Professor, I agree with you.
16:50Thank you for bringing in the cautious factor.
16:54Of course, we should be cautious.
16:57What makes me optimistic, it's also the fact that Trump is very pragmatic and he knows
17:05there is a lot of common ground as well.
17:07There are a lot of challenges like you just mentioned now.
17:12There are also common ground within the three principles that were mentioned.
17:17There is a lot of common ground.
17:21Because Trump is so pragmatic and because he understands that if China and the US are
17:30aligned, he will have more to win with that, including in other, eventually other geographies,
17:38eventually other technological areas.
17:41He knows that if he cooperates, that the US and China together can do a lot, not only
17:47for themselves, but they can also do a lot for the world as a whole.
17:51And I'm talking now about pollution wars and there's a lot of things that can be done and
17:55can be achieved together.
17:57And I'm so hopeful.
17:58Of course, I cannot predict the future, but I'm really hopeful that this pragmatic view
18:03and the independence of President Trump from other thoughts that we know that prevail a
18:09lot 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
18:22and we need to think about all the possible scenarios.
18:25But it's great that China on the other end is so stable on the view that they have of
18:31the international relations on the three principles and not only, because it brings a lot of stability.
18:38However, 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 ideological
18:59issues 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,
19:13structural obstacles inside the United States.
19:15Trump, his personality may be focusing on this practical attitude and focusing on the
19:23real interest and the common ground between China and the United States, but his team,
19:27including some unstable hawkish peoples, which may be focusing more on these ideological or
19:35so-called traditional or classical geopolitical attitude or views toward China, which will
19:44treat China more as a kind of so-called advisories or those challenges to U.S.
19:50hegemonies rather than practical peer-to-peer cooperation, strategic partners.
19:57And one more thing is I feel a little bit concerned from the obstacles or challenges
20:04that were raised from the U.S. Congress, because in his structures, the Congress and the White House,
20:10they need to check and balance with each other.
20:13And since the first term, it's more and more signals that the U.S. Congress wants to have
20:20more powers or try to keep the dominant positions to deal with the Sino-U.S. strategic relationships
20:30by taking advantages of Congress power by making laws. If they pass some laws,
20:37it will make it difficult for the U.S. president to pass by these laws.
20:42While at the same time, so I don't think that Trump has more influential and had more personal
20:50powers comparing to the first terms inside the GOP, I mean, the Republican Party itself.
20:58But there are some politicians, including even the Congress spokesman Johnson and those senators
21:05represented by Tom Corden, these guys, they have quite different attitude and views on China issues
21:13comparing to Trump. So maybe in future, we will have such kind of not new, but quite classical
21:21scenarios on certain issues. Trump and Chinese government are top leaders. They can dialogue
21:29and cooperate 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.
21:43But he cannot deliver his promise. When he go back to United States, the U.S. Congress will
21:51stop him from deliver or transfer his promise from paper to the real practice. And that will
22:00add more, not only the uncertainties to bilateral relationships, but will do damage to this bilateral
22:07trust. That's a little bit regret that in quite a long time, it's not the first time that Sino-U.S.
22:14relationship face such kind of challenges. Even in the 1990s, we always see that when U.S. president
22:22go to China, they can have good dialogue, make good statement, but when the president go back
22:29to United States, they were passing by some new laws or new policy files, which moving to the
22:36just opposite positions or the directions, which inputs more negative elements to these
22:44bilateral relationships. I feel just like you mentioned, I feel also a little bit cautious,
22:52optimistic attitude on this Sino-U.S. relationships in his second terms, but just to wait and see
23:01which we can got more better signals, more better real actions in this relations in the future times.
23:11Yes. And we've just had one signal that comes on the right direction with the TikTok announcement
23:20that they will issue an executive order to go back in this decision that was effective yesterday.
23:29So I think that's a positive one. And then going back to what you're saying, yes, I agree, there are
23:36many obstacles. But then again, also important to remind that the personality of the leaders
23:46in each circumstance are very, very important. Their own thought, you know, to eventually to
23:52fight and change what is pure ideology, because it's not something that comes out of the rational,
24:00it's something that comes out of deep-seated emotions that do not have an adherence to the
24:08reality and to the interest of the United States, actually, or Europe, if we go to Europe and talk
24:13about Europe afterwards. And I think Trump has the conditions to do that, just like, and I like to
24:20remind this case, because I always like to talk about this case, just like John F. Kennedy in 1963,
24:27when he made the peace speech and he completely changed the relationship and the development
24:34of nuclear tests between, in the whole world, but first with that speech between USA and Russia.
24:43And I believe that Trump has the potential to do something as powerful as this.
24:49And I'm very hopeful, of course, but I totally agree with you, lots of challenges.
24:54And so I can only cross my fingers. Yeah, I also need to cross my fingers.
25:00About this TikTok, I can add you more information on these things. First, yes, you can see that when
25:06Trump say that he has some ideas to resolve these problems, and after nearly less than one day
25:15shut down the TikTok, reopening the United States is kind of good, positive signals on one side.
25:22But on the other side, TikTok is also a very classic case, because first, Trump is the first
25:28guy who really threatened that either you will sell that out, or I will ban you in the United
25:35States when he in first term in White House. Of course, nowadays, he has different ideas.
25:40He finds that definitely TikTok is a good tool for him. And also, you can see it's a good tool
25:47for the GOP to become more influential inside US young generations. But when you're talking
25:54about more detailed, which can be delivered technical solutions for these questions,
25:59it's a lot of challenges. Actually, if you read what TikTok already done in the United States,
26:07try to fulfill the requirement raised by the United States, they already fit for these so-called
26:14capital structures of the companies. Actually, there's more than 50% of capital structure come
26:21from the United States, not from China. But of course, the real challenge is based on the
26:26governance structures. Red line of the TikTok is quite clear, it will never be sold, which means
26:32it will never lose its control of these companies. It will be mission impossible, which
26:39did not quite complicated to understand, because according to the basic commercial rules,
26:46the founding fathers of these companies, definitely it's his own right properties.
26:51You cannot just label him with so-called national threat and coercion him to
26:58sell it out to other peoples. That's not the proper way to doing business.
27:05Whether US can go back to these common ground or common sense based business problem or principles
27:13to solve these issues. Another more tougher challenges come from the US politics, because
27:19the law, which providing a law basement inside the United States to ask either TikTok will be
27:28sold out or banned inside the United States, already being passed. It has become a law.
27:33The Trump did not have the power to suspend this law or to just cancel it. He may send some
27:41administrative files to make some balance, but it's quite complicated because the spokesman
27:50Johnson already say that he believe that their understanding Trump's decision is based on the
28:00assumption that finally TikTok will be sold to a new American buyers. In that preconditions,
28:08maybe they could allow these companies to have more times to deal with this
28:16purchasement, but that's not the ideas come from the TikTok.
28:21Also, more, maybe a worse information come from Senator Cotton. He and his colleagues already
28:29make a joint statement in the last Sunday in the United States. They say that there's no space
28:37for so-called suspend or stop deployment, deliver for this law, according to the text files of this
28:47law passing by the Congress and the signed by Biden and the president. That's a very tougher
28:54challenges. Also, last, of course, not the least, when Trump say that I have a new ideas,
29:02we 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
29:18inside communications with his people inside the US Congress. So we still need to wait and see,
29:26but I agree with you that this TikTok can be a very good starting point or starting case
29:33to find out whether this guy has enough capacities and the wellness to input more
29:39constructive elements in this Sino and US relationship in his new terms. And we just
29:46continue, we'll keep observing the latest development of this case.
29:51Very well. Yes, I agree. I agree particularly with the fact that this case can be very relevant
30:03to understand what is effective power to manage the Congress and all the complexities
30:14of the decision-making process in the US.
30:21We worry about that because tariffs and protectionism are terrible for the well-being
30:28of people in general. So hopefully there will be now a new assessment. We're not in the electoral
30:36period anymore. Now becoming effective is power. So let's see what is going to do.
30:45Now this has been very useful because it has shown to the local European leaders that they
30:55should manage the relationship they have with the rest of the world and not be so dependent
31:03on one country. This is about what has been claimed before in the relationship between
31:09Europe and China actually to manage the risk. The risking is a basic management tool. It's
31:18managing risk. You call it the risking to put a negative factor in the world. But it's actually
31:25managing the risk. You should be neutral in your economic relationship and you should have a good
31:34relationship with all sides because, as we can see, things keep changing and the circumstances
31:42are different every four or five years, sometimes even less than that. So we should manage the
31:50relationship. We should also consider and respect the past relationship when it's good and beneficial,
31:58especially, which is the case between Europe and China. So I think this was a wake-up call
32:07for the European leaders that they should manage more carefully the relationship, put aside
32:13the non-rational ideology and bring aboard a more rational approach,
32:23which puts the interest of the people first. This is the most important. The politicians, they are
32:28the leaders, they have a very specific mandate, which is the well-being of the people. So if we
32:34have a good relationship with all countries, the US, China and every country in the world, this can
32:40only bring us more benefit. It will bring us more space to talk, to discuss and to make our
32:48interest be more easily achieved than if we keep talking about the ideology or if we keep
32:56forgetting the interest of the people. If we have more difficulty to do business with the
33:04US, of course, that the European politicians will have more room, even from the public opinion,
33:12you know, because that's the most important for the European leaders, is the public opinion.
33:18Then they will have more room to work more with China. Just recently,
33:26the US has issued some limitations to the trade of ships with some European countries,
33:34including Portugal. So you can imagine the feeling of the Portuguese people with this kind of
33:44measure is taken, you know, by a friendly, supposedly it's a friendly country. We are all part
33:52of NATO. We are very aligned. We are allies. And then it comes like this. So of course,
33:59this is these are all wake up calls. I think it's important that politicians need to
34:05understand that they have to defend our interests more than anything. And our
34:11interest is the well-being of our people. I think that it's very interesting questions
34:16to understand or to make some imaginations of possible scenarios between US, China,
34:23and the European Unions in Trump's second teams. I agree with you that this tariff seems
34:29the European Unions need to focusing on its own interest because the rising Trump's
34:36preference of the tariff and the so-called the MAGA make America great again, or put America
34:43at the first positions. Effectively speaking, it's nothing more than a new terms for the quite
34:49traditional or even classic trade protectionisms in certain aspect. And we all know that such
34:57kind of practices will not solve the problems. But I think that will be the first challenges
35:04both China and the European Unions will face in the second Trump's team. This guy,
35:09he just believe in himself, and it will be difficult for him to upgrade his
35:18knowledge systems about how to doing business, how to doing international relationships in the year
35:252025 or in the 21st centuries. This guy, his understanding of business, of this
35:34international relationship, you can find that he just lived in the world in the maybe late
35:4218th or late 19th centuries, in which that the countries, they doing business, they making their
35:50own factory and the productions in a completely different ways. I think there will be a very
35:56tough challenges because it means we need to sometimes we feel that we waste, we need to
36:03input too much times to persuade these guys. But these guys may be mission impossible to persuade,
36:09you need to conflict with them in certain ways to such kind of conflict will become a wake-up
36:15call for these guys to call back his pragmatic attitude on this or to take a more practical
36:23attitude to deal with this complex problems, the first. And the second, I feel a little bit
36:30concerned about domestic political elements or structures inside the European Unions, I mean,
36:38all those member states of the EU. Because from China's perspective, I highly agree with
36:46Bernard to say that maybe the first priority of European countries, they need to put aside those
36:54irrational ideological elements aside to separate it from the more practical,
37:04objective, core interest of European countries, so that we can deal with this difference or problems
37:11in practical ways, we can separate different things. Nowadays, I think that we can also keep
37:19cautious, optimistic, because we find some signals, those big companies, they transfer
37:25their industry capacities from European Unions to China, so that they can continue their productions
37:32here. But on the other side, when you say that you are in Brazil, that it will be difficult to
37:40find those positive improvement of Brazil's, they still also focusing too much on this.
37:47In my personal opinions, it's quite irrational, ideological elements dominated their understanding
37:57on these bilateral and multilateral relationships between China, European Unions and the United
38:04States. It seemed that these guys, or at least some of these European Unions top politicians,
38:12they would will to continue their unbalanced, even unilateral driven
38:19preference toward the United States and accept every requirement raised by the United States,
38:27no matter how improper it is, how sometimes ridiculous it is. They will just accept these
38:36ideas, make some very soft blame or complain about this irrational or ridiculous requirement,
38:45and then just keep their strategy and policy unchanged. That made Chinese people feel
38:53confused, sometimes feel just deep regret, because it just wastes not only times,
39:03but also opportunities and the trust we used to have toward the European peoples and countries.
39:12I think that should be a problem. Do you have any ideas how to solve these issues? Or can you help
39:20us to finding out more positive signals or elements from your inside European Unions or
39:28inside countries like Portuguese, so that we can become more confident through our future
39:34relationships? Yeah, my first advice would be to be optimistic, more than an advice is a request.
39:43Please be patient. Then besides some parts of the politicians, not leaders, but politicians,
39:57it's very much ideological, as you say, and it's very good for the media. So it's easy talk,
40:05you know, to not be nice to China. Then there is also, in my opinion, of course, some blindness
40:17regarding following the allies of what they consider the allies. There is some blindness
40:26in that, because the blindness should be only put on following the interest of the European people.
40:32And besides a little bit of patience, I think it is very important the diplomatic work,
40:42the work of the lobbying, namely here in Brussels, because nowadays more than 50% of all the laws
40:52that are made in my own country, Portugal, they actually come from Brussels. So we don't do
40:57anything. And they don't come from the Parliament, they come from the Commission, which is not even
41:02elected. So, and this is the internal problem we have. And we have different views about this,
41:07in my opinion, it should not be like that. It should be made by the Parliament, not the
41:11Commission. But what you can do to help besides being a little bit patient is a lot of
41:21communication, a lot of diplomacy and a lot of lobbying. Because I believe that if we explain
41:33rationally the position of China, and if we keep talking, keep leaving the door open to find
41:43opportunities 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. Nowadays,
41:59we have in Europe, the President of the Council is a Portuguese, António Costa. He just took
42:05over this position. He was an important person in a phase of huge Chinese investment in Portugal,
42:19when Portugal went through a very difficult moment. We almost bankrupt, actually, after the
42:24financial crisis of 2008. At the time, we've had the Troika, which was the European Commission,
42:31the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. They lent us 76 billion euros
42:42in exchange of a very, very hard program, including privatizing several companies. These
42:49companies went to international bids, and the Chinese companies were the ones that valued
42:57most our companies that were being privatized. And we also had other types of help from China
43:06at the time. And so, António Costa has experienced all of that. So, he knows the
43:14benefits of a win-win relationship. On the other end, he was also the Prime Minister at the time
43:22that Huawei was banned, not banned, but it was restricted in Portugal, was very restricted,
43:30and still is. So, at the time, probably eyeing this position in Europe, he already changed his
43:42position. But he knows, and I think he's a diplomat. So, I think he is a good negotiator,
43:51and he will probably be a good bridge here in Europe, a good person for the Chinese authorities
43:59to negotiate with, and to show their arguments, their rational arguments. So, I think it's that.
44:08We need to keep the dialogue open, and yeah, that's what we can do right now.
44:14Thank you, Brian. I think that your introduction makes me have more reasons to feel
44:20optimistic for our future relationships, and I wish that these rational politicians,
44:25they can have become more louder voice, and make people have better understanding what's
44:31the real interest of European Unions, and they try best to keep control those negative elements
44:39of these irrational ideological issues, which will already damage this European Union-China
44:48relationship too much.
44:53And this was another episode of China Now, a show that opens a window to the present
44:58and future of the Asian giant. Hope you enjoyed. See you next time.