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00:00Hello, Teluser 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 top stories of the week, including
00:24Trump's back-and-forth on his pretended tariff war and China's plans to boost cooperation
00:30with Latin America.
00:31Let's see.
00:38China Currents is a weekly news talk show from China to the world.
00:41We cover viral news about China every week and also give you the newest updates on China's
00:47cutting-edge technologies.
00:48Let's get started.
00:49Welcome to China Currents, your weekly news report on the latest developments in China.
01:03I'm Mimi, and in this episode, Trump chickened out in tariff war, China deepens cooperation
01:11with Latin America, Pakistan's victory boosts China's stock market, Huawei challenges Microsoft's
01:18monopoly, the new breakthrough of China's brain-computer interface technology, China
01:24builds stronger quantum computer to save more lives.
01:28First, the ceasefire of the tariff war.
01:32On May 12th, the United States and China issued a joint statement in Geneva.
01:38Both countries agreed to permanently eliminate 91% of their respective tariffs and suspend
01:4424% until August 10th.
01:47As a result, China now imposes a 10% tariff on U.S. products, while U.S. tariffs on Chinese
01:53goods remain at 30%, a combination of the 10% universal tariff applied to all imports
02:01and an additional 20% related to the fentanyl issue that Trump has previously hyped.
02:08While Trump might claim a victory on tariffs, financial markets appear to interpret the
02:13outcome as a capitulation.
02:15As The Guardian noted, the U.S. is not returning to the pre-Trump status quo.
02:21The White House hailed the importance of a sustainable, long-term, and mutually beneficial
02:27economic and trade relationship.
02:30The language was rather different to Trump's Liberation Day speech about the U.S. being
02:34raped by nations near and far.
02:38In other words, Trump has learned how to moan.
02:42The dire warnings from retailers about empty shelves may have contributed to this miracle.
02:48On May 10th, CNN also reported that America's busiest ports have seen steep declines in
02:54traffic.
02:55Cargo volume at Long Beach is reportedly down 35-40%, while the port of Los Angeles saw
03:02a 31% drop in shipments.
03:06On May 8th, Trump addressed the situation at U.S. ports, calling the slowdown a good
03:12thing because, in his words, we lose less money.
03:16He made no mention of the fact that China accounted for one-third of U.S. seaborne imports
03:21in March and helped drive near-record ocean fright volumes earlier this year.
03:27This collapse in trade is now costing jobs, particularly among longshoremen and truck
03:32drivers.
03:33Sal DiContanza, port liaison for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, told CNBC,
03:40just today we had somewhere north of 235 members who sought work but were not able to get it.
03:49According to FrightWaves, fright truck activity is now converging downward toward 2020 lockdown
03:56levels.
03:58Last month, Mack Trucks announced it will lay off 350 workers.
04:03Davis Express, a family-owned trucking company in Florida, announced it would shut down after
04:0944 years in business, leaving 117 truck drivers suddenly unemployed.
04:17Trump may have the luxury of reversing course on tariffs from the comfort of the Oval Office.
04:23However, for the workers affected by these policy swings, longshoremen, truck drivers,
04:29small business owners, can they get new jobs in the White House?
04:34On the other hand, China is still keeping 10-15% tariffs focused on U.S. agricultural
04:39products, meat, dairy, and timber, industries largely based in Trump-supporting regions.
04:47If Trump and J.D. Vance really care about U.S. workers, they had better remain respectful
04:53to China.
04:54Next, good news for other countries in the Americas.
04:59On May 13th, the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Forum of China and Community of Latin
05:04American and Caribbean States, CILAC, was held in Beijing.
05:09Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.
05:14He noted that to support development in the region, China will provide over $9.1 billion
05:20in credit financing and offer 3,500 government scholarships and 10,000 training opportunities
05:27in China over the next three years.
05:30At present, within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, China and Latin America
05:35have implemented more than 200 infrastructure projects such as Chang'e Port, creating millions
05:42of jobs.
05:43Last year, trade between China and Latin America surpassed $500 billion for the first
05:49time, more than 40 times the volume of the year 2000.
05:54Through trade with Brazil, Argentina, and other Latin American countries, China has
05:58greatly reduced its dependence on American agricultural products.
06:04At the end of the speech, Xi quoted a Latin American saying,
06:08A friend is a treasure.
06:11He stressed that no matter how the international situation changes, China will always be a
06:16good friend and partner of Latin American and Caribbean countries.
06:22Next up, let's congratulate Pakistan.
06:26On May 7th, Pakistan shot down five Indian fighter jets without any loss.
06:33Pakistani Defense Minister told Reuters that their pilots achieved this glory with Chinese
06:38built J-10 fighter jets.
06:41Following the statement on May 12th, shares of Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, the manufacturer
06:46of J-10, surged by nearly 20%.
06:51Indian media always vowed that French jets are more powerful than China made, but now
06:55it seems that the only advantage of the Rafale over the J-10 may be its price.
07:02According to the Warzone, Pakistan's secret weapon is a Chinese PL-15E air-to-air missile.
07:09In terms of range, PL-15E is nearly 50% longer than the Meteor missile equipped on the Indian
07:16Rafale fighter jets.
07:18Nikkei Asia noted that Chinese weapons have long been criticized for lacking real battlefield
07:23validation.
07:25Now with the courage and skills of Pakistani pilots, Chinese engineers have proved themselves.
07:32Moving on, on May 8th, Huawei launched its first personal computer powered by HarmonyOS,
07:39China's domestically developed operating system.
07:43This marks the system's expansion from mobile devices into the PC market.
07:48Back on October 22, 2024, Huawei unveiled HarmonyOS Next, the world's third major mobile
07:56operating system, after Apple's iOS and Google's Android.
08:01While the original HarmonyOS debuted in 2019, it relied partially on the Android Open Source
08:08Project, AOSP, a part of the Android operating system ecosystem.
08:14In contrast, HarmonyOS Next is built by Chinese developers from the ground up, offering significant
08:20improvements in both performance and security.
08:24For decades, the desktop operating system market, especially in China, has been monopolized
08:30by Microsoft.
08:32In 2019, Windows accounted for 88% of China's desktop OS market share.
08:38In 2025, Chinese police released an investigation into cyberattacks that occurred during the
08:43Asian Winter Games.
08:46According to Chinese cybersecurity experts, the U.S. National Security Agency allegedly
08:51transmitted encrypted data packets to specific devices running Microsoft Windows in China's
08:57Heilongjiang province.
09:00These packets may have been designed to activate pre-installed backdoors in the Windows system,
09:05triggering a series of remote attacks.
09:09The launch of a Chinese-made PC operating system is seen as a major step towards securing
09:15the nation's digital infrastructure.
09:18Today, the HarmonyOS ecosystem has surpassed 1 billion connected devices.
09:25The platform boasts over 7.2 million registered developers, more than 110 million lines of
09:31code, and full-stack autonomy, spanning the OS kernel, file systems, programming languages,
09:38AI frameworks, and large-model support.
09:42Moving on, on May 8th, Shanghai StairMed Technology announced that its Invasive Brain-Computer
09:49Interface, BCI, device has entered clinical trials, making it the second company in the
09:55world after Elon Musk's Neuralink to reach this stage in invasive BCI development.
10:02In a demonstration video released by the company, a test subject who has lost all four limbs
10:06in an accident is seen playing Mario Kart using nothing but his mind.
10:12By simply staring at the screen, he is able to steer the virtual race car via the implanted
10:17brain interface.
10:19No joystick, no controller, just pure thought.
10:25According to the paper, StairMed implanted two ultra-thin electrodes, each just one hundredth
10:30the width of a human hair, into the brain.
10:34These devices are connected to a coin-sized device embedded in the skull, which decodes
10:39neural signals and transmits them to external systems.
10:43Compared to Neuralink, StairMed's implant is about half as thin, and its neural electrodes
10:49are currently the smallest in the world, potentially minimizing damage to brain tissue.
10:55Professor Zhao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences noted that the trials are being conducted
11:00under the same regulatory standards required for medical device registration in China,
11:06aiming to bring the technology into actual clinical use.
11:11In March, China's National Healthcare Security Administration released a pricing guideline
11:16for neural system care services, specifying brain-computer interfaces as an independent
11:23category, effectively paving the way for this cutting-edge technology to benefit more patients
11:29in the future.
11:32Next up, on May 6th, Chinese scientists unveiled China's fourth-generation quantum computing
11:38measurement and control system, capable of supporting over 500 qubits.
11:44Often thought of as a neural hub of a quantum computer, the measurement and control system
11:49is responsible for generating, capturing, and regulating the precise signals that drive
11:55quantum chips.
11:57Powered by the system, quantum computers can offer computation speeds far beyond those
12:02of their classic counterparts.
12:04In 2023, Google introduced a 70-qubit quantum computer that can complete a calculation in
12:11mere seconds and take the world's most advanced supercomputer over 50 years.
12:18Thanks to this extraordinary computation capability, quantum computers play a pivotal role in biopharmaceutical
12:26research.
12:27This is because drug development relies heavily on massive data analysis and complex molecular
12:33simulations, tasks that traditional computers cannot process efficiently due to their limited
12:39power.
12:41On April 24th, Chinese scientists successfully demonstrated the use of its third-generation
12:46superconducting quantum computer, Benyuan Wukong, in breast cancer detection.
12:52It effectively improves diagnostic accuracy, significantly reducing false positives and
12:58missed diagnosis.
13:00Additionally, scientists use the quantum system to complete validations in other biomedical
13:05applications, including small molecule drug design and crystal structure prediction.
13:11According to the chief scientist at Origin Quantum, the company behind the technology,
13:16the third-generation quantum computer, Benyuan Wukong, has already completed over 380,000
13:23quantum computing tasks for more than 26 million users across 139 countries and regions.
13:31Its capabilities are being applied in finance, biomedicine, fluid dynamics, and more.
13:37That's all for today.
13:38Thank you for watching this episode of China Currents.
13:40If you have any thoughts or comments, please leave them below.
13:44See you next time.
13:55We have a short break now, but we'll be right back, so stay with us.
14:14Welcome back to China Now.
14:19This week, Thinkers Forum welcomes mechanical engineer and author, Jim Haslam, and the China
14:25Academy debates current issues with Singapore's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgio.
14:32Let's have a look.
14:41My name's Jim Haslam.
14:42I'm a mechanical engineer.
14:43I'm not a biologist.
14:44I'm not a virologist.
14:45I'm what's called a lab leaker.
14:47I'm someone that's spent an inordinate amount of time online debating the origins of COVID-19.
14:53And I've written a 450-page book coming to my own conclusion, which is pretty different
14:59than the mainstream narrative.
15:01So my narrative holds that this was an accident, but it was a lab leak.
15:06It was not a virus, though.
15:08It was a vaccine.
15:09It wasn't a human vaccine.
15:11It was an animal vaccine.
15:13I contend that SARS-CoV-2 was technically what's called a bat vaccine.
15:17That is a very crazy concept for a lot of people.
15:21This distant mammalian ancestor of ours, 65-million-year-old bat, essentially, was this target of this
15:29vaccine that we now call SARS-CoV-2.
15:33So that is the book I've written, and there's a bit of a plot twist in it.
15:39So I start off this book in the—here it is right here.
15:44I start off the book in the Wuhan BSL-4.
15:49This is the giant biolab that we've all seen on the pictures of Wuhan.
15:58So in the remote areas of Wuhan is this BSL-4, and inside this BSL-4 was a Western woman.
16:06I'll mention her name.
16:09She's Danielle Anderson, and she's inside this BSL-4 from June of 2019 until October of 2019.
16:17And she left Wuhan in November of 2019, and she told the world later on she was working
16:24on Ebola, and we all accepted it because that's what you do in the big BSL-4 labs with the
16:29big BSL-4 spacesuit.
16:32And I noticed, though, that her story didn't quite add up, so I hit the rewind button when
16:38this document, this U.S.-American document, was leaked about a year into the lab leak.
16:45September of 2021, to be exact, this DARPA-diffused document was leaked.
16:50And in this DARPA-diffused document, this U.S. military document, there is a woman named
16:54Danielle Anderson in it, and I cross-referenced it with the woman that's in the Wuhan BSL-4.
17:00And she had told us she was working on Ebola, but here she is in a U.S. military document
17:06working on coronavirus.
17:08And she's doing an experiment with live bats with these novel coronaviruses.
17:14So that's where my interest really got interested in this.
17:17I was intrigued by this woman's story not holding up.
17:23She's known as the last Western woman in Wuhan.
17:26So I don't feel bad for talking about her because it's not really her fault.
17:30This was an accident.
17:31But I'm going to basically proclaim that she was patient zero.
17:35Danielle Anderson was our first victim of many in this COVID-19 pandemic.
17:40She was inside this Wuhan BSL-4 experimenting with live bats, with this live coronavirus,
17:47with this furin cleavage site right in the middle of it.
17:50And it got out on her watch accidentally.
17:54My evidence for that is it's thick, but it's enveloping to the fact where I can prove beyond
18:04a reasonable doubt that the pandemic started in her lab at least.
18:09So what Wuhan provided, now because it started in her lab, I want to make this clear, it
18:15doesn't mean it was engineered in her lab.
18:18This is where it gets complicated.
18:19If something like a genome or a virus is ever engineered, biologists ship it around
18:25the world to test it.
18:26They freeze it in liquid nitrogen and they ship it around the world in the bottom of
18:30a plane just like any other package.
18:31It's basically packed in solid ice and it's shipped around the world for testing.
18:36So this isn't nefarious.
18:37All these labs just collaborate.
18:40This is Western science in action.
18:42And this BSL-4 in Wuhan was built to invite Western scientists into the Wuhan BSL-4.
18:48So this was, you know, open science, good science, you know, hopefully safe science
18:53if something like this didn't happen.
18:55So just because it started in the Wuhan BSL-4, which is what I can tell you, it doesn't mean
18:59it was engineered or created in the Wuhan BSL-4.
19:02It just means she's testing it.
19:03She's testing the final product, this prototype, what I call this R&D accident.
19:09So she is on the receiving end of this vaccine that's been shipped to her from a U.S. lab.
19:13This is where my narrative deviates from most others.
19:18If you interview another lab leaker, you'll claim that the Chinese scientist engineered
19:23this in a Chinese lab and it got out.
19:25And they'll claim that this thing has nothing to do with the Wuhan wet market, which I agree
19:28with.
19:29But what I don't agree with is that the Chinese scientist, you know, engineered a genome like
19:33SARS-CoV-2.
19:34I actually contend it's impossible for a Chinese scientist to have engineered SARS-CoV-2.
19:37It's biologically impossible to have engineered a genome like SARS-CoV-2.
19:41And if you go through my book, COVID-19 Mystery Solved, there's multiple chapters outlining
19:47how that's possible.
19:48And to get further into the details of this, if anyone has been interested in the lab leak
19:52debate, they probably know of a woman named Shi Zhengli.
19:55Shi Zhengli is the bat lady of Wuhan.
19:58That is probably who people know about and have heard about.
20:01They don't know about Daniel Anderson, but they will know about Shi Zhengli.
20:04They are colleagues, not close colleagues, but they are colleagues.
20:08They both are what's called bat virologists, essentially.
20:11So they're peers, basically.
20:13And they work on international projects, and they cross paths in Wuhan like they did
20:18in this project.
20:20So they are both in Wuhan in 2019.
20:23There is Shi Zhengli, who's in the Wuhan BSL-2, that is near downtown Wuchang City Center.
20:30Then you've got Daniel Anderson.
20:33So when the pandemic started, this is in January 2020, Daniel Anderson has now left Wuhan.
20:41He has left without reason in November.
20:46The pandemic starts on January 10th of 2020.
20:49On January 10th of 2020, there is the first big event for the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
20:55The genome is uploaded.
20:56The Chinese scientists have isolated the virus, this mysterious virus circulating in Wuhan,
21:02and they have uploaded this genome, this 30,000 nucleotide genome, the signature, if you will,
21:07to the databases.
21:08And when they upload the signature to the databases, Daniel Anderson's boss, Linfei
21:14Wang, stepped down as Duke's Emerging Infectious Disease Director.
21:19So the boss of Daniel Anderson has now resigned from his position at Duke, essentially, after
21:25recognizing the genome that got out on their watch.
21:28So he's done the honorable thing and stepped down.
21:31Then two weeks later, on January 24th of 2020, Xi Jinping, the Bat Lady, emerges onto the
21:37international scene, and she uploaded this genome called RATG13.
21:41This is why I basically call Xi Jinping the whistleblower.
21:46I have announced her to be the brave whistleblower, and I believe she may go down as one of the
21:50braver women in science for doing what she did.
21:55Because when she uploaded this genome, this RATG13 genome, which is about 96% similar
22:01to SARS-CoV-2, it's not 100%, but it's a close match.
22:04When she did that, she ironically made her own lab the primary suspect of a lab leak
22:09because she had the closest known genome to man, to any man, to any woman, to any scientist.
22:15So ironically, when she did this, she brought attention to her lab and the BSL-2.
22:20She brought hell upon her.
22:22So the entire world just descended upon her.
22:25You have the closest known genome to SARS-CoV-2.
22:27You are now our primary suspect.
22:29As I said, every Western scientist, every Western newspaper, every Western reporter,
22:33they converged upon her.
22:35For the irony of her actually exposing the fact to us, Western virologists in particular,
22:41that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered, she ironically brought attention to her.
22:44Does that make sense?
22:47So basically, she goes down with this nightmare of a firestorm brought upon her for doing
22:55this pretty brave act because when she uploaded this genome that made SARS-CoV-2 look engineered,
23:00one of the Western scientists wanted her arrested.
23:03So this is where it gets kind of interesting.
23:05So when I contend that SARS-CoV-2 wasn't created or engineered in Wuhan, I'm going to tell
23:09you it was engineered in U.S. labs.
23:11And one of the two people, I can name names because it's pretty clear who did this.
23:16The guy that created the genome is Xi Zengli's colleague in North Carolina.
23:21His name is Ralph Baric.
23:22So he's been in Chinese newspapers, don't worry.
23:28The Chinese media know who Ralph Baric is.
23:30So he is this coronavirologist.
23:34He basically specializes in coronaviruses for the past 40 years.
23:39So he's been doing it since coronaviruses have been around or at least recognized in
23:43circulation.
23:44And he's one of the few, if not the only scientist on the planet that could have created a genome
23:48like SARS-CoV-2 because it's so new, so novel, so different.
23:53No one could create anything like this other than him.
23:56So this Ralph Baric character is a professor at the University of North Carolina.
24:00And he wrote this DARPA, this U.S. military proposal in 2018.
24:04And he said, I, Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina, I'm going to insert the
24:09furin cleavage site, what I just showed you on the back of the book, and I want to test
24:13it on live bats in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
24:17Why?
24:18This is where it gets a little weird, but you know, it's just, it's, it's the Chinese
24:24horseshoe bats, this, this, this, this horseshoe bat is this about as big as your fist.
24:29And it's very small and very fragile, but it is the source of what's called SARS-1.
24:34That virus, that SARS-1 virus was traced by Shi Zhengli, the bat lady of Wuhan, back to
24:40Chinese horseshoe bats.
24:42And these Chinese horseshoe bats are in the remote Yunnan province, which is about 1,500
24:50kilometers south of Wuhan.
24:52But Shi Zhengli would go out there from 2005 until 2015 for Ralph Baric, for, for the NIH
25:01in the, in the, in America, for U.S. scientists, she would go out there and collect bat samples
25:05from these bats.
25:07And one of these bat samples she collected was this RATG13 genome I keep talking about.
25:12She collected this RATG13 genome in 2013, hence the name.
25:17So when she collected it, she brought it back to Wuhan and she didn't do anything with it
25:22until 2018.
25:24She started to upload it, but she uploaded it to U.S. databases in 2018.
25:29So when she starts to upload these genomes to these, these databases, it gives Western
25:33scientists access to them before they're published, which is what happened in this case.
25:37Shi Zhengli didn't do much of anything to cause any pandemic other than she uploaded
25:43this RATG13 genome.
25:45She was paid to do this.
25:46This is what the U.S. scientists, the U.S. government actually wanted her to do, to go
25:50out there to the bats, find these SARS-like samples, collect them, bring them back to
25:56Wuhan, sequence them, and then upload them up to the, the, the database for scientists
26:01like Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina to download it.
26:05And when Baric can download the genome, he can recreate it.
26:09He can recreate a Chinese virus in his North Carolina lab.
26:12That's how good he is.
26:13Shi Zhengli could not isolate or create the genome, but Ralph Baric in North Carolina
26:18could.
26:19So if she uploads it, Ralph Baric can download it, he can create it and modify it and play
26:23with it, which is what he wanted to do.
26:26He declared this intent to modify this genome, this RATG13 genome and put it up here in Cleaverside
26:32and send it back to Wuhan, send it to Daniel Anderson and the BSL-4, which was safe.
26:37You know, it's a higher level security lab.
26:40It's, it's, it's, it's more secure, at least that was the idea.
26:43No one set out to, you know, blow up the world or whatnot.
26:47No one set out to frame the Chinese.
26:49Unfortunately, this is kind of what happened.
26:51And Daniel Anderson was to experiment with this, this novel, you know, chimera we now
26:56call SARS-2.
26:57That was her responsibility.
26:58And what Wuhan and Shi Zhengli were able to provide were the live bats, the bats where
27:03the genome came from.
27:04So the genomes taken from the bat, it's uploaded to the database, Ralph Baric downloads, modifies,
27:11then he sends it back to Wuhan.
27:13But this time it goes from the, from BSL-2 to Ralph Baric, from Ralph Baric to the BSL-4.
27:18It's a little confusing, but that's essentially what happened in this case.
27:22And that was the intent of this program was to try and prevent the bat from producing
27:27another SARS-like event.
27:29They wanted to vaccinate the bats.
27:31And this is what's outlined in this, this US military proposal called DARPA Diffuse.
27:37And it usually ends because DARPA, this, this US military branch did not fund the, the grant.
27:43And no, that's true.
27:44They did not.
27:45But NIH, NIAID, Tony Fauci did.
27:48And that's the kind of the, that's where I start the book.
27:51And that's where I move us down the path, hopefully to where the story gets really good,
27:54which I don't really want to talk about here because it gets even more crazy when you get
27:57into the details of it, because there's more than just North Carolina involved.
28:01You know, Tony Fauci, this, this, this, this Pope of biodefense in America is also heavily
28:06involved in this.
28:07So that's, that's kind of the story in a nutshell without overwhelming your, your viewers and
28:12listeners.
28:13I am here to tell you with biological fact and in 400 pages of evidence, the Chinese
28:19scientists did not create SARS-CoV-2, nor did the Wuhan wet market.
28:23You know, I have evidence pointing away from the Wuhan wet market and evidence pointing
28:27towards, you know, US scientists and away from the Chinese scientists.
28:31I did not care who did this.
28:33I just wanted to know who did.
28:35And over time it was, you know, more and more documents came out.
28:38When I looked at LabLeak, I, well, let me put it to you, when I looked at the origins
28:41and I always assume LabLeak, because it's just, there's 12 bio labs in Wuhan and I always
28:47assumed it just came from one of them.
28:49But I never thought we would figure out which one, because you can't get to the bottom of
28:53it.
28:54It's, it's, no one's going to admit it.
28:55The documents that they exist are gone.
28:57So I thought there was no interest in it.
28:59I got interested when the DARPA Diffuse document leaked in 2021, that's late 2021.
29:05And all the other LabLeakers ignored it.
29:07LabLeakers are people that spend time like on Twitter per se, and they debate the origins
29:12down to the nucleotide.
29:13And I was one of them passively paying attention.
29:15But when the DARPA Diffuse document leaked, I go, this is big.
29:18This is huge.
29:19This is now, you know, a 2018 document saying that US scientists are going to create something
29:24like a SARS-CoV-2.
29:25And everyone else just kind of ignored it, because I don't even know if they wanted to
29:27look that deep into it.
29:28But as everyone else ran away from it, I ran towards it.
29:31And that really piqued my interest, because then that would check a lot of boxes for me.
29:35Why, why, why were Western scientists covering up something that I believe to be a LabLeak
29:40in Wuhan?
29:41Why would they, why would they fight so tooth and nail for that?
29:43It just smelled funny.
29:45Then I liked the story of the guy that leaked the document.
29:48His name is Major Joseph Murphy.
29:49He's the American hero.
29:51If I got Xi Jinping as the Wuhan hero on the Chinese side, I've got Major Joseph Murphy
29:58on the American side.
29:59He's the American hero in Chapter 7.
30:02And he's basically this DARPA fellow.
30:04He was an intern at the DARPA military office, which the DARPA is like the brain of the Pentagon.
30:11The Pentagon is this, we all know the Pentagon, you know, it's the US military, you know,
30:16fort.
30:17It's this fort of the US military, it's this small, nimble, you know, entity called DARPA.
30:21Defense, I can't even give you the name of the acronym out loud.
30:27But it's basically like Google, Siri, you know, drones, drone warfare, machine guns,
30:34all these dual use technologies that come out of this tiny little nimble, you know,
30:40department called DARPA.
30:41And Major Murphy was a fellow, an intern there.
30:45And he smelled a rat, an American rat basically involved in this.
30:49I don't know how, but he's sitting in the back of the DARPA rooms, as he wrote in his
30:52letter, and he pieced it together.
30:54And he noticed that there's immunovation in this genome of this virus.
30:58And he says immunovation is like asymptomatic spread.
31:02We spread the virus without knowing we have it.
31:05That was a very weird feature of SARS-CoV-2, the asymptomatic spread.
31:09And it led a lot of lab leakers like myself to assume bioweapon.
31:13That's where, you know, people get their PLA, Chinese military, you know, that's the
31:19brain just starts going into overdrive when they see immunovation, because there's really
31:22nothing moral about immunovation.
31:24Well, there is in a vaccine, scientists design immunovation, asymptomatic spread, that is
31:30a feature, not a bug in an animal vaccine, and in particular, in a self spreading animal
31:35vaccine, you want immunovation, immunovation means the virus does not trigger the immune
31:40system.
31:41Now, it wasn't a human immune system.
31:43It was a it was a bat's immune system, a mammal, a mammal, just like you and me, basically.
31:48But we have a very similar immune system.
31:50This is why virologists love studying bats.
31:53So there was the virus, you know, the vaccine was designed to evade the immune system.
31:57So it keeps spreading and keep shedding.
31:59So that was a feature, not a bug.
32:01And that's what Major Joseph Murphy in the DARPA department picked up on.
32:05And he found the DARPA document.
32:07And he wrote his letter saying it's an American created recombinant bat vaccine.
32:10And I go, this is this is this guy is on to something.
32:14And the only thing he had wrong in his theory about the American created bat vaccine was
32:18it doesn't affect bats.
32:20That's what he said.
32:21And I go, well, it doesn't affect Chinese horseshoe bats, but it does affect American
32:26lab bats.
32:27That's what I brought to the table was that's my biological evidence for this thing being
32:31a U.S. lab creation.
32:33SARS-CoV-2 does not infect Chinese bats, even though it allegedly came from a Chinese bat
32:39like a Chinese horseshoe bat.
32:40It does not infect them.
32:42I've asked British bat biologists living in China, two of them in particular, I won't
32:48say who, does it?
32:50And they have not answered, you know, because it doesn't because no one's tested it.
32:54Because if someone did prove that it did, they would gladly publish the results.
32:59So no one anywhere in China or anywhere in the world has proven that SARS-CoV-2 infects
33:03Chinese bats.
33:05But SARS-CoV-2 does infect American lab bats.
33:09So that's my evidence that I proposed to you at the beginning and the middle of the end
33:12of the book.
33:13There's this particular bat, I won't name it, but it's just, it's a special bat.
33:17It's like a, it's an American bat, a fat, easy to breed, easy to feed kind of bat.
33:22You know, it's like a low maintenance bat that you don't have to keep up, you know,
33:25with the, with a lot of, you know, high work and high maintenance.
33:28So this particular bat is kept in bio labs, in U.S. bio labs, in particular, Tony Fauci's
33:33bio lab.
33:34It's an info war.
33:35You know, there's no doubt about that.
33:36It's a full on info war.
33:37It's, it's, it's, it was, there was a cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
33:42in the eighties, a cold war, meaning no shots were fired, but they were kind of like playing
33:47spy games amongst each other, you know, hot air balloons, big, big, you know, jets, big,
33:53you know, rockets going to, going to the moon.
33:56That was the cold war with China and the U.S.
33:59It was, it's going to be an info war, maybe a tariff war.
34:02It's going to be some other kind of hybrid war, but I don't think it's going to be bio
34:05warfare.
34:06No.
34:08Bio warfare is, it's, it's, it's not effective.
34:10It's just really not.
34:11We've seen that happen.
34:12I mean, everyone got, everyone's economy was screwed up by this.
34:16Everyone's people died because of this.
34:17Everyone was infected because of this.
34:18You cannot control the genome once it's out of the box.
34:21I mean, bio warfare is just not effective because it's not targeted, you know?
34:25So it's just, it's not an effective warfare apparatus.
34:27Don't get me wrong.
34:28It was done.
34:29I think, you know, there's a, there's a nasty history with the Japanese and the Chinese,
34:33and there's a nasty history between the U.S. and Cubans.
34:36731, we all know about the Japanese lab and there's something similar going on with the
34:40U.S. and Cubans.
34:41So Cuba is this island right off the coast of Florida.
34:45So we've done some, some nasty, we, the Americans have done some nasty bio warfare or talked
34:49about doing some nasty bio germ warfare, like throw, like kill the crops kind of thing,
34:53you know, starve the people, you know, unless Phil Del Castro goes over.
34:57So I think bio warfare had its place.
34:59It was about 50 years ago.
35:01I don't think there's anything like that war, but I think we, I think you nailed it.
35:03I think it's an info war.
35:05I think that's essentially what it is.
35:06We are stuck in an info war and you know, on the American side, it's, it's tariff the
35:11Chinese because they're going to take your job on the, on the Chinese side is why are
35:16you taxing us?
35:17We provide you, you know, goods and services.
35:20So I think right now it's a bit of an info war and I think, I don't know what happens
35:25to be honest with you.
35:26I mean, who knows?
35:27I mean, I would never have thought Trump would get, you know, into office and level tariffs,
35:31you know, like this.
35:32And like, you saw what happened, the whole market just, just, it totally implodes at
35:36least the stock market does.
35:37And I don't think he cares, you know, to, to, if you want to know what Donald Trump
35:41is, I don't want to talk politics too much, but he's what's called an isolationist.
35:45He's basically, you know, a person that he has dubbish tendencies.
35:50So let's not think that he wants war with China, but he does want to trade war with
35:54China.
35:55There's, there's, there's obviously something about that.
35:56He wants an info war with them.
35:58He sees China as a competitor.
35:59And I think, you know, people like Jeff Sachs try to explain the way capitalism and free
36:03markets work pretty well.
36:05You know, it's called trade.
36:06It's mutually beneficial.
36:07You know, it's essentially called the division of labor and a comparative advantage is the
36:11term I think that Jeff Sachs will throw out as an economist, but you have to be an economist
36:15to know that you have to study goods and services crossing borders and how it's better off this
36:18way.
36:19So a lot of Americans have been told the Chinese labor has taken your job and it's a very popular
36:25political slogan and it gets you elected to office.
36:27So look what happened.
36:28Trump gets back in office.
36:30And not only is it important, it's important in what's called the swing States like Missouri
36:33and Pennsylvania and Michigan and Indiana.
36:37These are factory towns, or at least they were at one point.
36:40And you, you, when you campaign in there as a president, you have to win the States like
36:45Florida and Texas don't really matter because they're always going to vote Republican.
36:48And the way you get their vote is you say, I'm going to tariff, I'm going to tax the
36:52Chinese.
36:53We're not going to lose these factory jobs anymore.
36:55It doesn't make any sense.
36:56It never did.
36:57The factory jobs gone to a, to a, to a more efficient place, you know, whether it's China
37:01or Vietnam or, or, you know, Mexico, most of the jobs are gone to Mexico, all those
37:05factory jobs there in Mexico and Canada too.
37:09So, you know, not only is he taxing the Chinese, he was taxing Canada at one time.
37:13I mean, that's incredible.
37:14I mean, this, the biggest trade partner isn't, isn't China, it's Canada.
37:19I mean, it's just trillions of dollars in goods probably that go across that border
37:23over time.
37:25Yeah.
37:26I mean, don't get too sucked into our politics.
37:29It's entertaining.
37:30I'll admit that.
37:31I hopefully, I think we're, I think Donald Trump's all bark, no bite.
37:36I think that's, you know, that's, that's essentially it.
37:38Like he's a dog that'll bark, but he won't actually bite you.
37:41So I would take none of this personally.
37:43I would take none of it, you know, as any more serious than a politician just looking
37:48to say something to get a vote really, which is unfortunate.
37:52You know, a good voter is, is, is a terrible economist.
37:57So that's, that's what Jeff Sachs is up against, you know, he's trying to educate the world
38:01about the way economics works and he does a good job explaining.
38:06What is it?
38:07The trade imbalance, you know, essentially America consumes more than it produces.
38:11So there's a trade imbalance.
38:12So we consume more Chinese goods than we produce.
38:15America does export.
38:16America does export like services, lawyers, COVID, you know, jet fighters and whatnot.
38:24I mean, you know, but there, there is, you know, movies, you know, entertainment, Netflix,
38:32you know, so there, there are exports there.
38:35It's more of on the service side, apparently, you know, we're all, we're all salesmen in
38:39America.
38:40We're all, you know, selling something in America.
38:42That's essentially what we are.
38:43A bunch of talking heads at this point.
38:45We don't produce much of anything anymore, you know, I mean, well, I can't say that,
38:50you know, I mean, I've worked with some great American companies that produce some really
38:53good products.
38:54So you can really, you know, be proud of that, I guess, from my perspective.
39:01Does the current trade war and the shift in the global order, the sensitivities, the uncertainties,
39:08does it worry you for Singapore, for the prosperity of this region, including China?
39:15I see something which may sound surprising.
39:20It is good that we have a trade war and not a real war.
39:25Because the trial of strength between the US and China will have to go through a process
39:34lasting many years.
39:36And there'll be many anxious moments.
39:38And in some of those anxious moments, there could be physical conflict and people could
39:42die.
39:43A trade war is good, because it's only about money.
39:49And both sides can really manage.
39:53Trump said, I decide.
39:56Because if the deal is something I'm happy with, we have a deal.
40:01I can also decide.
40:02If you are a businessman, if you are an individual, you may be hurt, but you're only hurting your
40:10pocket.
40:11You're not bloodied.
40:15Remember on the first day after you arrived, we were having dinner, and you said, actually,
40:20Albert, if you can back me up, we actually decided that we don't dislike Trump, like
40:25on a personal level.
40:26And I would say that most Chinese people, or at least the sentiment on the ground, online,
40:32is that people actually do not dislike Trump.
40:36And my take on that is, for China now, I think respect and honesty and honor means more than
40:45the physical interest.
40:46Because what the Democrats or the United States used to do for the longest period of time
40:51after World War II, including this time what was revealed about USAID, what they were doing
40:58around the world, that is claiming moral supremacy over other civilizations, is what the Chinese
41:05people cannot live with.
41:07That's what they hated.
41:09So where Trump is, gloves off, let's fight.
41:15The Chinese people are actually OK with that.
41:18And actually, from my point of view, I think Trump is actually an easier counterpart.
41:28Trump is actually a much easier one to deal with.
41:32No, I think you're right.
41:34They were operating in a very sophisticated system.
41:37They thought they could dominate the world, and therefore they should dominate China.
41:43China refused.
41:46And for complex reasons, instead of concentrating on China, they're keeping close to Russia.
41:53They went after Russia.
41:56And this is China's good fortune.
42:00Then you had the Middle East.
42:03Both Ukraine and the Middle East, Gaza, are distant walls for China.
42:07China is not directly involved.
42:09And they've taken the heat away from China.
42:13But throughout this period, the internal difficulties of the US got worse.
42:20Their deficit increased, their social problems increased.
42:24And Trump was voted on the platform to revive American manufacturing, to solve the drug
42:32problem, to reduce the deficit.
42:36So he has no grand conception of US dominating the world.
42:40Secretary Rubio was the first Secretary of State to say that we are living in a multipolar
42:45world.
42:46This is a big concession that the US administration has made.
42:52Future US administrations will have to work within this framework.
42:55It is a reality.
42:57And once you think in terms of a multipolar framework, your strategy and your tactical
43:03moves all change.
43:04And we're seeing that in Trump.
43:08Mao Zedong once said that he much preferred to work with Republican presidents than Democrat
43:12presidents because they are much more honest.
43:14And in the case of Trump, he's not ideological.
43:17Exactly.
43:18You can deal with him.
43:19He's got a bottom line.
43:20Yeah.
43:21He's very honest about what he wants and what measures he's going to take in order to get
43:26that.
43:28And there is no ideological supremacy.
43:31There is no hypocrisy.
43:33There is no intellectual control, mind control games that he plays there.
43:38But he's a bully.
43:39Yes.
43:40He is a bully.
43:41He's a bully.
43:42Yeah.
43:43And his negotiating style is very aggressive.
43:45It's quite scary.
43:46I met a former Korean minister.
43:51He said, if Trump wants $2, he'll ask for $10.
43:55And he'll scream at you.
43:56Yeah.
43:57And you're so anxious.
43:58So in the end, you say, OK, you settle for $3.
44:01Trump has got $3 instead of $2.
44:04And you're so happy that you're only giving him $3 and not $10.
44:08That's how he negotiates.
44:10OK, where does Southeast Asian, ASEAN countries, Singapore, China stand with this bullying
44:16style of negotiators?
44:18There was a meme circulating somewhere.
44:21I just came across it.
44:23I think it's a comedian or something.
44:25He said, hey, I know, Trump, you wrote The Art of Deal.
44:30But remember, China, they wrote The Art of War.
44:34Who said that?
44:35The Singaporean?
44:36No, no, no.
44:37An American comedian.
44:38One of those.
44:39That's quite funny.
44:40Yeah, one of those funny shows.
44:41Yeah, it was just a funny thing that I remembered.
44:43So where do we stand against a negotiating bully?
44:46If you're a small guy and there's a bully walking around, just stay in the corner.
44:52Don't attract his attention.
44:54It's not worth the while to attract his attention.
44:58But if you have no choice and he's going after you, then you've got to stand up to him.
45:03Because if you show weakness to a bully, he'll bully you more.
45:07Now, if you stand up to a bully, he may give you a punch in the face.
45:10OK, you take the bruise.
45:13And you hit back, and then he'll be more careful next time.
45:16But of course, in the case of Singapore, we have ASEAN.
45:21And if there's a group of us who stay together, it's harder for him to bully us.
45:26So ASEAN will become stronger.
45:28And ASEAN is getting stronger.
45:30Singapore's strategy is very simple.
45:32Try not to attract attention.
45:34And work with ASEAN.
45:37Do you think Singapore and ASEAN countries are at some point going to be forced to pick a lane between China and the United States?
45:45Because it seems like in the world order today, yes, multipolar,
45:48but increasingly sort of like parallel lanes of parallel worlds emerging.
45:55For all 10 Southeast Asian countries, an ascendant China is something we have seen repeatedly in history.
46:03So whether you're Thailand, or Vietnam, or Indonesia,
46:07you have a historical memory of China, and how it behaves when it is strong.
46:13You never want China to be an enemy.
46:16It's just Thai maafan.
46:18Why is it so big?
46:20You don't want to be too close to China either.
46:23If you're too close, you have no freedom.
46:26So the instinct of Southeast Asia is trade is good, investments are good,
46:32good relations are important.
46:34But maintain a certain formality.
46:38And have other friends around.
46:40No, Zhu Rongji, China's premier, very wise man.
46:48In the year 2000, when ASEAN countries were reeling from the Asian financial crisis,
46:53he offered a free trade agreement to ASEAN leaders.
46:56I was there in Singapore, year 2000, November.
47:00And ASEAN leaders did not know how to react.
47:03I was trade minister.
47:04The following year, when the trade ministers met in Henai,
47:07I said, China wants it politically.
47:10Ask for an early harvest, a concession.
47:15Singapore did not benefit because it was for agriculture and natural resources.
47:22But I wanted a moral position.
47:25I'm not asking this for Singapore.
47:27I'm asking this for the other nine.
47:29They agreed. China agreed.
47:32Later on, I spoke to Longyong Tu.
47:35Premier Zhu said, whatever ASEAN wanted, give to them.
47:40I read it correctly.
47:44Then the following year, in Jinping, we signed the Framework Agreement.
47:49And Zhu Rongji made two remarks.
47:52He said, if after 10 years, the agreement is in China's favour, we will renegotiate it.
47:58这么大方的态度, I couldn't believe it.
48:03I said, that's very good.
48:05Then he made a second remark, even more important.
48:09He said, China does not seek for itself an exclusive position in ASEAN.
48:16He meant that we will never ask you to choose your friends, so long as you are my friend.
48:24So if the Americans come here and tell us, you choose between China and us,
48:29I tell my American friends, you ask that question, you may not like the answer.
48:34So I suggest you don't ask that question.
48:37The Americans openly said, we don't ask ASEAN countries to choose.
48:42But privately, on specific issues, they put pressure.
48:47However, I really like what you say.
48:52From the historical perspective, the ASEAN countries, they remember when China was powerful.
49:00If you stay too close, you lose freedom.
49:03However, if we really look into history, China only had war with Vietnam and Cambodia.
49:12During the Qing Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, Ming invaded Vietnam and Qing invaded Myanmar.
49:23Besides that, China actually didn't interfere with their local business at all.
49:31All the Chinese emperor asked was tribute.
49:35And not just very often, like one year or two years or three years for once.
49:42And actually, every time when they go tribute to the emperor, the emperor gives much more than the tributary.
49:51So is it a historical misunderstanding?
49:56How is this mentality formed?
49:58Firstly, the word tributary, tribute, is a wrong word for chao gong.
50:05The leaders of Moscow paid tribute to the Golden Horde.
50:11It was a ransom.
50:13I give you money so that you protect me and you don't disturb me.
50:17Dubrovnik paid tribute to the Sultan, again for protection.
50:23The Chinese system was you chao gong, you get trading benefits.
50:28It is not payment.
50:30It is to receive payment in return for respect.
50:34Southeast Asian countries realised that in the Chinese mind, face is very important.
50:40So whenever they meet Chinese leaders, whenever they come to Beijing, they say such sweet things about China.
50:45And Chinese leaders are so happy.
50:47They respect us.
50:51But when they go back home and they talk to their own people.
50:53I know because I talked to them.
50:55They said China is, they don't say bully, but sometimes China puts a lot of pressure on us and they're very tough and so on.
51:02It's important for China to understand this.
51:05But what Elvis is trying to ask is where does that perception come from?
51:09With the lack of physical war in history, where does that perception come from?
51:15Is it self-imposed or how?
51:18Are you talking about Southeast Asia?
51:19Yeah, Southeast Asia.
51:21Somewhat sort of like, okay, let's stay slightly away from China.
51:25Where does that come from?
51:27I wouldn't go as far as use the word fear.
51:30But like you described, people are sensitive about their relationship with China.
51:35Because China is big and China has an enormous market.
51:38And if China likes you, it can make you very happy.
51:43Right.
51:44And if China dislikes you, you feel a lot of pain.
51:47So it's just a natural progression of power disparity.
51:51No, it's like ordinary people when they meet a very rich man, they behave nice to the rich man.
51:57Because the rich man can give you a hongbao or something and suddenly you are very happy.
52:01Okay.
52:02Or he can take away your license or your rental and then suddenly you're in trouble.
52:05In China, in Chinese statecraft, and this is from Pinfa, never use military force unless you absolutely have to.
52:14Yeah.
52:15And try to achieve your objective without military force.
52:19Of course you need military power, but don't use it.
52:24And the best weapon is economic.
52:28So when China says, oh, we are in favor of free trade and so on,
52:35I said for certain things, China has always used trade for statecraft.
52:42And the Americans have the cheap act to deny China technology.
52:46Think about this.
52:48China kept the secret of making paper and the secret of making silk for many centuries.
52:56You're not allowed to betray this secret to foreigners.
53:01And it gave China a huge advantage.
53:03The silk trade we know was an important source of revenue.
53:08Paper is like today's computer.
53:10With paper you can record, process data, organize more people, regulate flood control, understand climate change.
53:21China had a monopoly for centuries.
53:24So this gave China an enormous advantage and why it has always been able to organize more people on earth.
53:31So if the Americans say, I don't want to give you chips.
53:34I don't want to teach you this or that.
53:37Of course.
53:39Because if China has such knowledge, China will also not want to share with other people.
53:44So this is, to me, normal, not unusual.
53:49The politicization of trade is also normal.
53:53It's not unusual.
53:54So relax.
53:56The important thing is we're not killing each other.
54:02And this was another episode of China Now.
54:05A show that opens a window to the present and future of the Asian giant.
54:10Hope you enjoyed it.
54:11See you next time.