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00:00Hello, Telesur English presents a new episode of China Now.
00:13Our media's production showcases the culture, technology and politics of the Asian giant.
00:17In this first segment, China currents dive into the top stories of the weeks,
00:22such as President Xi Jinping make a tour, visiting countries in the southeast of Asia,
00:27also China and Eiji making their first joint drill,
00:31and the world's first humanoid robot marathon held in Beijing. Let's see.
00:39China Current is a weekly news talk show from China to the world.
00:44We cover viral news about China every week,
00:46and also give you the newest updates on China's cutting-edge technologies.
00:51Let's get started.
00:57Welcome to China Currents, your weekly news report on the latest developments in China.
01:05I'm Chris.
01:05And in this episode, Chinese President visited Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia.
01:10The first joint drill between China and Egypt Air Force,
01:14and a world's first humanoid robot marathon held in Beijing.
01:18First, let's move to Southeast Asia.
01:20From April 14th to 18th, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia,
01:26promoting three significant areas of cooperation.
01:30First, in Vietnam.
01:31On April 19th, Vietnam's Vietjet Airlines started the commercial operation of China's C-909 passenger airliners,
01:39becoming the third overseas operator after Indonesian airline Transnusa and Lao Airlines.
01:44According to the South China Morning Post,
01:47these civilian jets have been leased from Chinese regional carrier Chengdu Airlines.
01:52They will operate on domestic routes between Vietnam's capital Hanoi and Kandao Islands in southern Vietnam,
01:59as well as between Kandao Island and Ho Chi Minh City.
02:02Chengdu Airlines will also provide the crew, maintenance, safety and operational support under the lease agreement.
02:08The C-909 has a capacity of 97 seats and is designed for short flights ranging up to 3,700 km.
02:17According to the manufacturing COMEC, since its maiden commercial flight on June 28th, 2016,
02:23the C-909 series has delivered 160 aircraft as of the end of January.
02:28A total of 644 flight routes, both domestic and international, have been operated,
02:34and 580,000 hours of safe flights were conducted, delivering nearly 20 million passenger trips.
02:41The China Daily reported that the C-909 has secured its dominance in China's regional aircraft market
02:47by accounting for 70% of the market share in terms of volume,
02:51up to 60% of the world's similar aircraft models delivered last year were C-909s.
02:58Clearly, China's aviation industry is booming in a market where Boeing is absent.
03:04Secondly, in Malaysia.
03:06On April 17th, China and Malaysia officially signed a mutual visa-free deal.
03:10While both countries had previously introduced a 30-day visa exemption policy December 2023,
03:16the new agreement establishes a permanent visa exemption.
03:20This is expected to boost tourism significantly.
03:23According to the Malaysian Insight, Malaysia surpassed Thailand in 2024 to become the ASEAN country
03:29with the most tourists, receiving a remarkable 38 million foreign visitors.
03:34Among them, nearly 3 million were from China.
03:37A 2024 report from the World's Travel and Tourism Council indicated that tourism will contribute
03:42around 200 billion ringgit to Malaysia's national economy, which is 1.6% higher than 2019 levels,
03:50accounting for 10.5% of the GDP.
03:54The tourism industry is expected to create over 3.5 million jobs,
03:58providing employment for one-sixth of the Malaysia's population.
04:02The China Outbound Tourism Development Annual Report 2024 shows that
04:07the number of outbound Chinese tourists will reach 146 million,
04:12with Southeast Asia being the second-largest destination for Chinese tourists.
04:16According to Huaxa Times, flight booking for trips from China to Penang, Malaysia,
04:21and other destinations in the first quarter of 2025 have surged by 130% compared to the same period last year.
04:30Business opportunities in ASEAN countries are also a major reason for the increasing number of flights from China.
04:36Data from Tongcheng Travel indicates that business travels from mainland China to ASEAN countries
04:42grew by more than 110% year-on-year in the first quarter.
04:47Customs statistics show that the total import and export volume between China and ASEAN countries
04:52in the first quarter of this year reached 1.71 trillion yuan, a 7.1% increase year-on-year.
04:59And the proportion of China's overall foreign trade with ASEAN countries rose to 16.6%.
05:05Lastly, in Cambodia.
05:07On April 17th, China and Cambodia signed an agreement to officially launch the Funan Techeo Canal project.
05:13The canal would begin at the Ta-Kyo Canal of the Mekong River,
05:17pass through the Ta-Ek Canal of the Basak River,
05:20and finally merge with the Ta-Khin Canal of the Basak River in a Khoa-Tong district.
05:25It would connect Phnom Penh directly with the country's only deep-sea port in Sihanaq Field,
05:30and a new port in Cambod.
05:32The canal crosses through regions totaling 1.6 million inhabitants.
05:36The project includes constructing three dams with sluices and 11 bridges.
05:41The canal would be 100 meters wide and 5.4 meters deep, supporting vessels up to 3,000 tons.
05:47The project is expected to cost US$1.7 billion, with 51% of the state owned by Cambodian entities,
05:55and the target completion date is 2028.
05:59Regarding the Chinese President's Southeast Station tour, Al Jazeera commented that he sent a clear signal.
06:05China is a better partner than Trump.
06:08Next up, Hello Egypt!
06:10On April 19th, the first training day of the China-Egypt Eagles of Civilization 2025
06:15joint air force exercise kicked off in Egypt.
06:18China Air Force sent a J-10C and J-10S fighter jets and a U-20 large tanker aircraft and a KJ-500 early warning aircraft to the exercise.
06:29Chinese military affairs expert Zhang Shiefeng noted that the Chinese U-20 tanker aircraft should also be compatible with the Egyptian MiG-29 fighter jets,
06:38so theoretically they may practice aerial refueling during the drill.
06:42The two sides could also practice basic maneuvers, coordinated combat and tactical confrontation training.
06:49It is also possible that pilots from the two sides visit each other's aircraft.
06:54The joint training will also help lay a foundation for military exchanges and cooperation between China and other Middle Eastern countries.
07:02To ensure efficient deployment, the Chinese side utilized the combined transport method of air transfer and air transport
07:09via multiple countries covering a range of nearly 6,000 kilometers.
07:13And all equipment and personnel arrived in Egypt by April 15th, CCTV reported.
07:19Wang Yunfei, a Chinese military affairs expert, said this showed and enhanced the PLA Air Force's ability to operate far from home
07:26and its adaptability to diverse environments around the world.
07:30China's Ministry of National Defense announced on Wednesday that the PLA Air Force would participate
07:36in the Eagles of Civilization 2025 joint exercise in Egypt from mid-April to early May,
07:42following an agreement between the Chinese and Egyptian militaries.
07:46Egyptian news outlet Abraham Online noted that the Egyptian military described the maneuvers as part of the broader effort
07:52to deepen defense ties with China and strengthen joint military capabilities.
07:58Wang Yanan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, highlights,
08:01it is also a good opportunity for the Egyptian Air Force, which has a need to upgrade its defense equipment,
08:07to evaluate China's advanced equipment, and to consider potential procurement.
08:13Moving on, on April 19th, the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon,
08:17with 20 robots running alongside thousands of human participants, was held in Beijing.
08:22In a 21-kilometer half-marathon, Tiangong Ultra created by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center
08:28won the race with a time of 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds.
08:33Xiong Youjun, CEO of the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, the developer of Tiangong Ultra, said,
08:39The goal wasn't just to cross the finish line, but to test key technology through the rigors of a long-distance run,
08:45then improve technological breakthroughs, and finally lay the groundwork for robots to enter factories and daily life services.
08:53Xiong said the robots needed compact, heat-resistance joints, precise motion control, and strong core algorithms to finish the race.
09:01The half-marathon also tested their stability, reliability, battery life, and ability to handle complex terrain like slopes and turns.
09:10The China Daily commented,
09:11While US companies such as Boston Dynamics and Tesla have dominated headlines with viral demos and futuristic visions,
09:19Chinese brands and companies are also rapidly catching up,
09:22not just in manufacturing, but also in mass-producing such robots and making them inexpensive for ordinary people.
09:28That's all for today. Thank you for watching this episode of China Currents.
09:32If you have any thoughts or comments, please leave them below. See you next time.
09:36We'll have a short break, but don't go away, because we'll be right back.
09:57Welcome back to China Now.
09:59Today, Thinkers Forums welcomes Professor of Films and Media Studies, Catherine Liu,
10:05talking about what happened between class struggles and identity talks,
10:09and also the media's role in erasing class struggle. Let's see.
10:13I don't know if it was designed by the ruling elites as a kind of conspiracy,
10:35but I do think that with the 1970s and the offshoring of American manufacturing jobs to East Asia
10:45as a strategy of the Cold War to contain China and create prosperity in the East Asian zone,
10:51the American working class started to see defeat after defeat,
10:56both within private institutions, within corporations and their own jobs,
11:02and at the governmental level. I would say that the period of real worker power
11:08stretched from 1930 to 1970 in the United States.
11:13And as the American working class was weakened, within liberal and left spaces,
11:20let's just say like the Democratic Party, which stands for both liberal and left spaces in the United States,
11:27very, very, very flawed political organization. But up until the 1970s, unions and union leaders were a very important part of the Democratic Party configuration.
11:38And after, well, during and after the Vietnam War, a new class of people came to dominate the Democratic Party,
11:46college-educated elites. And they were liberal, they were anti-war, and they felt that the unions,
11:55many of whom voted in favor of the Vietnam War to approve it, very backward in their thinking about race, about gender.
12:05And eventually, the white-collar elites, the people who had been to college,
12:12they were able to sort of stage a values and a money takeover of the Democratic Party.
12:19And not only that, but liberal organizations like the media, like non-governmental, not-for-profit institutions.
12:26And this was something that happened through a decade when the 70s, when there was a lot of economic turmoil,
12:35like we're going to see now. And I feel like there was a cultural, a focus on culture and cultural vanguardism within the 70s
12:46that separated the two parts of the left liberal parties, where you have a cultural elite that has gone to college,
12:56that has a different idea of cosmopolitanism, globalization, and a rooted working class that finds itself with less and less power
13:04in terms of wages and politics, and is characterized as behind the times with regard to cultural politics.
13:12And Barbara and John Ehrenreich, in their essay from 1977, say that almost all left and liberal organizations
13:20by that point already had been dominated by college-educated elites.
13:24This was not the case before the 70s.
13:28There were many union leaders and union members from women and men who came up in politics
13:34through the workplace, through their unions.
13:37One of the great leaders was Myra Wolfgang.
13:40She started out as a secretary for a union in Detroit,
13:45started organizing and moved through more,
13:48and started mobilizing women and men in service organizations, service unions.
13:55And there were fewer and fewer people like this in the Democratic Party who had that kind of backing.
14:02The other thing about the Democratic Party before the 70s was,
14:06and this is for better or worse,
14:07a lot of the major cities were run by someone called bosses.
14:12They came from working-class neighborhoods.
14:16They often were established in Chicago, for instance.
14:20The city is divided into parishes.
14:23It's that old-fashioned, like each church has a neighborhood.
14:27And these bosses were a little bit like mob bosses themselves.
14:31They were protecting the interests of their neighborhoods.
14:34And a lot of that had to do with the fact that white working-class ethnics
14:38throughout the 20th century were being, were discriminated against.
14:41So Irish Americans, Italian Americans, even Jewish Americans,
14:46Eastern Europeans, German Americans,
14:48they all had their groups and organizations.
14:52And they, too, had a place in the Democratic Party organization.
14:57By the 1970s, this is gone.
15:03So here's what happened was that there were a lot of media conglomerations
15:08and consolidation is a huge factor in all of this.
15:13But journalists, journalism became a profession
15:16that you had to go to school to get a degree for.
15:20Radical journalists in America, the 30s and 40s,
15:22they were often people who had never been to college,
15:24worked local beats.
15:26They were tough guys.
15:27A lot of them were men.
15:28And they were bold.
15:30They were paid very badly.
15:32Often, if they covered a labor issue,
15:34they were paid as much as the workers.
15:36You know, they saw themselves very much on the side of the workers
15:39against the bosses.
15:42Well, more, as journalism becomes more and more of a professionalized,
15:47standardized, prestigious, better paid profession,
15:50the, not only the BA, but a higher degree had to be had
15:54from Columbia Journalism School, for instance,
15:57is one of the famous ones, Northwestern.
15:59You had to have a kind of technocratic neutrality about your reporting
16:05that gave cover to, like, this kind of liberalism
16:10that America was so proud of in the post-World War II period.
16:16And so the, more recently, you have the takeover of Washington Post
16:20by Jeff Bezos.
16:21You have conglomerates taking, like, Gannett newspapers
16:25taking over a lot of the old local newspapers.
16:28There are very few locally owned papers anymore.
16:32Los Angeles Times is owned by Patrick Xiong Ma,
16:35who is a billionaire who made his money through health care.
16:41Billionaires own the newspapers now.
16:43And this has really changed the tenor of what local newspapers are.
16:48The internet has also destroyed local coverage.
16:51Local newspapers used to depend on advertising,
16:53like local advertising for their income.
16:56They can't depend upon that anymore.
16:58So we have the shutting down of all the newspapers
17:00and the consolidation and the emergence of television news,
17:0724-hour television news cycles,
17:09which I have to say, you know,
17:11just favor both extremism of left and right,
17:16not left, but liberal ideology and right-wing extremism
17:19and sensationalism.
17:21Because when Ted Turner started CNN,
17:25you had to suddenly have news 24 hours a day to report.
17:29So a lot of the news becomes just trivial stuff,
17:32sensationalistic stuff, and stuff that sells,
17:35that attracts eyeballs.
17:36All of the old news forums are also in serious trouble,
17:41like MSNBC.
17:42The news stations have fewer and fewer viewers.
17:45Fox, you know,
17:47still keeps itself going.
17:51But I think a thing to remember is that the mainstream media in the United States
17:55has become dominated by liberal ideology.
17:59And there are certain things in the liberal ideological mass media
18:02that you cannot do.
18:04Like, you cannot criticize U.S. support for the Ukraine war.
18:08They will not tolerate that.
18:10And if you do and you get on there and you say,
18:12maybe the U.S. shouldn't support this war that is going on
18:16and we're giving billions of dollars to a country
18:18that can't account for the billions of dollars,
18:20they will call you a Putin lover.
18:22They will call you totalitarian.
18:24They serve billionaires.
18:29They just serve different billionaires.
18:31Both parties are both at the, you know,
18:34they're serving the interests of capital.
18:39And it is,
18:42and the liberals have been in power for a long time.
18:45There was that interruption of Trump for four years,
18:48but we had eight years of Obama, four years of Biden.
18:50I live in a state that is got a Democratic governor,
18:55Democratic assembly, Democratic legislature.
18:58And I have, I can see so much anger
19:04against the Democrats already.
19:06We could phrase it in this way.
19:08It's a kind of non-college educated,
19:12blue color or service worker mass,
19:16which are the majority of Americans.
19:18It's like 35% of Americans have gone to college.
19:21This means there's 65% of Americans
19:23who haven't been initiated into the liberal culture wars
19:28that the liberals love to play.
19:30And so they find it extraordinarily oppressive.
19:34And I would say even within the liberal institutions,
19:38the imposition of identity politics
19:40has not been without resistance.
19:43But what I was going to say about California is,
19:45if you criticized identity politics, like at work,
19:49I would feel like people would be so upset at me.
19:53They don't listen to what I say online, which is fine.
19:55I don't care.
19:56But, you know, I don't, I keep my mouth shut
19:58because it's fair.
19:59And even my, you know, colleagues who are above me,
20:02senior colleagues say, no, no, you can't criticize that.
20:05Please don't say that in public
20:06about, you know, a lot of these diversity,
20:09equity and inclusion programs that Trump is outlawing.
20:12So there's a lot of anger about how this kind
20:16of social justice identity politics policies
20:22have been crafted, where the Democratic Party
20:24really believes that if you have an elite
20:27that is proportional, like 14% Black, 35% Latino,
20:3345% Latino, whatever, 35%, you know, white,
20:36and the rest Asian, which is very small,
20:38then you'll have the perfect reflection
20:40of American society and all the poor
20:43should be that way.
20:44They believe in proportional managed representation
20:47at all the levels of society
20:49without transforming capitalism.
20:52All we need is to have everyone represented properly
20:54in proportion in elite spaces,
20:56and then we'll have social justice.
20:58Well, people are really, really angry about that.
21:00And people feel like it has been imposed upon them
21:03while they've seen their livelihoods disappear,
21:07they see their homes being taken away,
21:08they see their public schools being destroyed,
21:12but you have this, like, cultural, ideological,
21:15ideological, cultural enlightenment
21:17that the elites try to impose on ordinary people.
21:22I get to talk about ordinary people.
21:24So there is a lot of resentment,
21:26and there's a lot of anger and distrust
21:28about the way that the Democrats have used morality
21:33to disguise the fact that they just have
21:35other billionaire interests behind them.
21:41So Trump's very obvious about having his billionaires
21:44in front of him.
21:45Let's just look at this for a moment.
21:48Like, Obama, in his first two years of his presidency,
21:52had Democratic control of the White House,
21:56Congress, and the Senate.
21:57Why didn't they make Roe v. Wade,
22:00which is the federal Supreme Court decision
22:03to making a federal law that abortion,
22:09not a law, but it was a decision
22:11that made abortion permissible in all the states.
22:15Why didn't he make that into a law?
22:18You could have written that as a legislation.
22:21It would have been passed by the Senate,
22:23the Congress, and he could have initiated that.
22:26Look at who Trump has done in 100 days.
22:28Why didn't that happen?
22:30Why didn't he make that priority number one?
22:32So I have a theory about this,
22:34which is that they want abortion
22:36to always be a political issue
22:38so that the NGOs around reproductive rights
22:42can continue to raise money.
22:44It's like a way to mobilize women and say,
22:47oh, those Republicans,
22:48they want to prevent abortion.
22:50So there's that.
22:53In those first two years,
22:55you know, America's healthcare system
22:56is a complete mess.
22:58I think you've probably heard.
23:00We pay the most out of any country in the world
23:03for healthcare,
23:04and we have the least good outcomes.
23:07I think China's life expectancy
23:09has passed Americans or it's met.
23:12America's going down, China's going up,
23:14but we pay so much money.
23:16There's a fragmented private insurance,
23:19for-profit private insurance marketplace,
23:21and there are for-profit hospitals.
23:24There are not-for-profit hospitals.
23:25Everything is extremely fragmented,
23:27but everyone is managed to austerity.
23:31So when you had,
23:32when COVID first started,
23:34the reason why it was such a disaster
23:37was because there simply weren't
23:39enough intensive care unit beds
23:42in hospitals.
23:44Why were there not intensive enough ICU beds?
23:48Because they are not profitable.
23:50Keeping a lot of empty ICU beds
23:53is simply not profitable,
23:55is not efficient use of hospital space.
23:58So they were cutting, cutting, cutting,
24:00and then you have this situation
24:02where the hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID.
24:06So Obama has the presidency,
24:08he has the Congress,
24:10he has both branches of Congress,
24:12and they come up,
24:14they decide, like,
24:15we're going to look at healthcare.
24:18Because if you take away
24:20the private insurance layer
24:22that is managing care,
24:24and you have the government
24:26be the single payer
24:28to hospitals and everything else,
24:29you actually save so much money
24:31that you could give
24:33the 1.5 million people
24:35who work in private insurance
24:37two years of severance pay
24:39for them to find another job.
24:41But we couldn't do it,
24:43well, because there were
24:43a lot of powerful lobbyists
24:45and a lot of powerful think tank people,
24:47people who were supposedly experts
24:49and economists and healthcare
24:50just saying,
24:52this can't happen.
24:53This can't happen.
24:54And all of those special interests
24:57finally got their way,
24:59and we got a very fragmented thing
25:00called Obamacare,
25:01which is still better
25:02than what it was before.
25:04But Obamacare means that
25:06a family will pay $800 to $1,200 a month
25:10and still have to pay $3,000 out of pocket
25:14before any kind of coverage will kick in.
25:18So you have the highest cause
25:20for American middle-class bankruptcy
25:21is medical debt
25:24and small business debt.
25:26So this kind of American dream
25:28where you can have a middle-class person
25:29have a dignified life
25:31and sort of have these prospects
25:33is now just like one medical disaster,
25:36one medical problem aware
25:38from total disaster,
25:40from falling through the cracks of society.
25:43So they didn't do it.
25:45They didn't do it
25:46because healthcare,
25:47the pharmacological companies,
25:50insurance lobbies,
25:53they were there massaging
25:56all the statistics saying
25:57this wasn't going to work.
25:59You know, one of the reasons
26:00why American labor is so expensive
26:03is because once you're a full-time employee
26:05and your employer has to give you healthcare,
26:07that is, you know, the law,
26:09it is so expensive
26:10that American health,
26:12that American workers
26:14cannot compete on a global level
26:15because the rate of employment,
26:17not because they make so much money,
26:19but because the healthcare costs
26:21are so much for that person.
26:23So why couldn't that have been passed then?
26:26Why couldn't they have protected American workers,
26:29got rid of all this waste?
26:31Well, it's because Democratic Party
26:33is as beholden, as I said,
26:35to Capitol as the Republican Party.
26:37So we're so far away from healthcare reform.
26:40But you see,
26:42with all the cutting and the austerity
26:43in healthcare and hospitals with doctors,
26:46after writing that book,
26:47doctors have written to me,
26:48nurses have written to me,
26:50they are not able to give the care
26:52that they need to give.
26:54nurses are quitting
26:56because a nurse shouldn't have to take care
26:58of more than eight patients at a time
27:01on an intensive care floor.
27:02And they're taking care of 15, 18, 25 people,
27:06you know, one nurse for all of these people
27:08and they feel like they can't do it.
27:10And it's because of management
27:12and efficiencies and cuts
27:14that American workers are completely demoralized.
27:18And I don't know if you've heard
27:21of this thing called quiet quitting.
27:24But it's a real thing,
27:26you know, where people go to work
27:27and they're not paid a lot of money.
27:30They don't want to do their jobs properly.
27:31And instead of quitting,
27:33they just kind of show up
27:34and not do, you know, very much.
27:36And then they go home
27:37because they don't feel like they can,
27:40there's any hope for improvement
27:43or hope for a better world.
27:45You know, young people,
27:46I complain about them,
27:48but I sympathize with them as well too,
27:52because the, you know,
27:54the average cost of a house in Irvine,
27:56which is a very desirable suburb,
27:58I mean, it's very safe and clean
28:01and hygienic and very boring,
28:04but the average house costs
28:06like 1.4 to $2 million.
28:09Where are they going to get that money?
28:10Where is an average person
28:11going to get that money to buy a home?
28:15When my father came to the United States
28:17in 1964, he got a job at the UN.
28:21He was able to buy a house.
28:22He was able to buy a car
28:24and he was able to work
28:25and support a wife and three children
28:27in the 70s.
28:33He's creating chaos.
28:34He's saying that he's,
28:35many ordinary people,
28:36many working class people believed him.
28:38You know, if you work,
28:39if you worked in an industry
28:41that's been decimated by layoffs,
28:43you want to hear that someone is,
28:46you know, trying to help you out,
28:47but he has no industrial policy behind it.
28:53So, for instance,
28:54there was this small business owner
28:57on TikTok who was complaining about his,
29:00he has six months before his business
29:03is going to go bankrupt
29:04because he imports alloy hubcaps
29:08from China.
29:09You know, those wheel covers,
29:11you know, some guys like my husband,
29:13people are crazy about cars.
29:14They like to get their custom alloy wheels, right?
29:18And he says that
29:20with the 125%,
29:23you know, a tariff markup,
29:25he is not going to be able to afford
29:27to import these things
29:28and sell them at cost.
29:29And he's looking for other suppliers.
29:32There are no other suppliers
29:33in America sourcing them
29:35or even Canada or Mexico
29:37who are responding to his request.
29:39And he said,
29:40you know, I voted for Trump.
29:42I thought he was going to be doing this
29:43for, you know, ordinary people,
29:45but he put the tariffs on
29:47without having an industrial policy.
29:50So he did things backwards.
29:51Like you need to have an industrial policy
29:54of reinvestment in these industries
29:57that you're suddenly going to tax so hard.
30:00There is no preparation
30:01for what happens
30:02when everything from China costs,
30:04you know, is tariffed at 125%.
30:07What Trump thinks was going to happen
30:10was that suddenly Apple
30:13would reshore its industries.
30:16It takes three years at minimum
30:19to build an iPhone factory.
30:23And then who knows how long it would take
30:25to actually train the workers.
30:26There was no plan.
30:29What he wanted to do was say,
30:31look, I've done this
30:32and Apple is investing $3 billion
30:34and so-and-so and such-and-such.
30:36Look, I've done the tariffs
30:38and then, you know,
30:39Intel is going to start making
30:41all of his chips in Arizona
30:43and they're investing $1 billion.
30:46He just wants to have the numbers down
30:48so that it looks like he's doing something.
30:50But you can't have
30:51just private investment doing this.
30:54The industrial policy
30:56is government-driven.
30:58The Chinese have shown us that
31:00and the Americans knew this.
31:01In 1945, they knew this.
31:04They knew that industrial policy
31:06had to be encouraged by the government
31:07and this is also why
31:09they helped Europe
31:11with the Marshall Plan.
31:12They wanted to re-industrialize Europe
31:14so that it wouldn't be
31:16going back into fascism.
31:18And the Marshall Plan
31:19created an industrialized base
31:22in Europe
31:22after it was completely destroyed.
31:24You don't just depend
31:27upon private corporations
31:29to make those kinds of investments.
31:31You can't.
31:32So what we have now in America
31:34is a total lack of preparation
31:38for these industries
31:40that are going to be decimated
31:42by the China tariffs.
31:44Now, if you have a serious
31:46industrial policy,
31:48the other thing that we need to do
31:49is have infrastructure built
31:52in this country.
31:53The railways are in terrible shape.
31:56I don't know if you've heard
31:57about the rail accidents
31:59that happened in the past
32:00two or three years.
32:01And they say that
32:01you have these giant trains
32:04of 100 cars each
32:06with one engineer.
32:09One engineer who can't go
32:10to the bathroom
32:11because these private transport companies
32:15want to cut labor costs.
32:17So if you have an industrial policy
32:20that says we're going to reinvest
32:22and just rebuild the railroads,
32:25China's not even a factor in here
32:28except for the steel.
32:29Trump put the steel tariffs on China,
32:31so now all steel in America
32:33is much more expensive.
32:35But it was also because
32:36in the 1990s,
32:37the American government
32:39let U.S. steel
32:40move all the steel mills
32:42out of Pennsylvania,
32:43out of Minnesota,
32:44destroyed countries,
32:45and they're in Shandong.
32:47The major steel production
32:49in the world
32:50is in northeastern China.
32:52And so this happened
32:54because of American policies too.
32:57And then you have this idea
32:58that, but let's go back
32:59to the railways
33:00and we should build up the railways,
33:03re-industrialize the Midwest.
33:05I'm like,
33:06I'm an old school industrial person
33:09because the service jobs
33:11cannot replace manufacturing.
33:13You just,
33:15they cannot replace that
33:16for healthy working class salaries
33:19and everything else.
33:19Service jobs are just,
33:21are paid so little
33:22and they depend upon
33:24making like blue collar workers
33:26just like the servants
33:27of people in my class
33:29who like can suddenly
33:30have very convenient lives,
33:32but it is not a sustainable thing.
33:34Also because these service,
33:36service people in America
33:38are for Uber delivery.
33:40I think it's the same in China.
33:42They're not employees.
33:43Maybe it's not the same,
33:44but they don't have benefits.
33:45They're freelancers,
33:47so they don't have health insurance.
33:49They have to buy
33:49their own health insurance.
33:50Their own insurance.
33:51It's a terrible situation.
33:52So the government
33:53has to make it possible
33:55for a reinvestment
33:57in industrializing a core
34:00that is really,
34:02has very few public services left.
34:04Everything has been privatized.
34:06The biggest predator right now
34:10is private equity.
34:12And I have heard
34:12this conspiracy theory.
34:14This seems plausible
34:16to a certain degree
34:17that Trump wanted to create
34:20a stock market crash.
34:21So private equity could come in
34:23and hedge funds come in
34:24and buy up the small companies
34:26they haven't bought up yet for cheap.
34:29Or, you know,
34:30you create a crash
34:31and then you create
34:32investment opportunities
34:33because the stock market
34:34was up so much.
34:35And a Republican congresswoman,
34:38Marjorie Taylor Greene,
34:39was shown,
34:40bought last week on the dip.
34:42Maybe she knew Trump
34:43would, you know,
34:45reverse his tariff decisions
34:46by last weekend
34:47so the stock market
34:48comes up again.
34:49I mean, it could be
34:50just a crazy stock market
34:52manipulation thing.
34:54But if it is that,
34:57then it is really,
34:58truly nefarious.
35:00And the thing is that
35:02we are really at
35:03a constitutional crisis.
35:05Because one of the things
35:06that Americans
35:07have always prided themselves on,
35:09one thing is
35:10habeas corpus,
35:12you have your own body,
35:13no one can arrest you
35:14or disappear you
35:15without legal warrant
35:17or accusation,
35:18order from a judge.
35:19Two,
35:20we have rule of law,
35:22allegedly, right?
35:23The Supreme Court
35:24has made all these rulings
35:25about Trump deportations.
35:26He is simply
35:27not listening to them.
35:29It's all hollow talk.
35:30And people were angry enough
35:33at the liberals.
35:34The liberals had betrayed them enough
35:37that they were so hungry
35:39for someone who would seem to,
35:42who seemed angry
35:43at the status quo.
35:45I can understand that.
35:46I mean, some of my liberal colleagues
35:47are like,
35:47he's the devil,
35:48blah, blah, blah.
35:49You can't understand that.
35:50So if you are in my class
35:52and you cannot understand
35:53how angry people are
35:54at the Democrats
35:55and liberals,
35:56then there's also
35:57something wrong with you.
35:57Because have we lived
35:59in the same country?
36:00Have you seen what's happened
36:01to middle-class wages?
36:02Have you seen
36:03what has happened
36:04to just the free market
36:06and its cruelty?
36:07Hello?
36:08Like,
36:09we have very comfortable lives,
36:11but there are 50 million Americans
36:14who live under the poverty line.
36:17Three out of five children
36:18in America
36:19have known hunger.
36:20This is the richest country
36:22in the world.
36:24You don't think
36:24there's something wrong?
36:25You just need to go back
36:26to the Democrats?
36:27I am so disillusioned.
36:31Like,
36:31I do not think
36:32this party is viable.
36:34And that's also really scary
36:36because what is
36:37the alternative to Trump?
36:41I do think
36:43that there is
36:44an opportunity here
36:45to talk about
36:47real material change
36:49and not just cultural,
36:51like,
36:51linguistic changes
36:53that Democrats
36:54have been proposing
36:55or this kind of like
36:56hollow promise
36:57of economic populism
37:01that Trump represents.
37:02I think that
37:04we do have to understand
37:06how much
37:07we've been captured
37:09by liberal ideology
37:10and take it apart
37:12and start demanding
37:13more accountability
37:14and start demanding
37:16a real change
37:17in the organization
37:19of capital
37:20in this country.
37:21right now
37:23I don't see
37:24a clear path
37:25forward.
37:26I do think
37:27there's a lot
37:27of,
37:28there's still a lot
37:29of strength
37:29and resources
37:30within the United States
37:32but all of the
37:33liberal institutions
37:34are deeply,
37:35deeply corrupted
37:36from the media
37:38to the,
37:40yeah,
37:40from,
37:41to the universities
37:42actually,
37:43yeah,
37:43to the universities.
37:44We once prided
37:45ourselves on having
37:46the country
37:47where all,
37:48all the scholars
37:49and everyone
37:49wanted to come
37:50and maybe
37:51in the STEM fields
37:52that's okay
37:53but,
37:53you know,
37:54I've got to say
37:54like even
37:55in like medical
37:57training
37:58and in fields
38:00that had very little
38:01to do with identity
38:02politics,
38:03identity politics
38:04became a dominant,
38:05becomes a dominant
38:06thing in the training
38:07of doctors
38:07and people
38:09are sort of
38:11forced to adopt
38:13these positions
38:14or be banished
38:15from the field.
38:16I think we need
38:17to get back
38:18to some kind
38:19of objective
38:19scientific commitment
38:21to an objective
38:22shared reality
38:22and if we get
38:23to an objective
38:24shared reality
38:25this is where
38:26Marxism actually helps.
38:27It's like
38:27here's the economic
38:29objective
38:30shared reality.
38:31This country
38:32has trillions
38:33of dollars,
38:34you know,
38:351% of them
38:36controls 90%
38:38of the assets
38:39of this country.
38:40This is objectively
38:41wrong
38:41and it will lead
38:43to unstable
38:44politics.
38:46No country
38:47can sustain
38:48this level
38:48of inequality
38:49without it affecting
38:50the politics
38:51of that country
38:52and we have
38:53to insist
38:54upon an objective
38:55material
38:56shared reality.
38:58It's crazy
38:58that I'm having
38:59to say this
39:00but, you know,
39:01within my own fields
39:02of humanities
39:03and social sciences
39:04we went through
39:05a whole period
39:05of postmodernism
39:07and hyper subjectivity
39:08where it's like,
39:09oh no,
39:09anything,
39:10we have to
39:11disrupt the norms
39:12and everything
39:13is point of view
39:14and I'm just
39:16like,
39:18we have a
39:19congenital inability
39:21among my class,
39:23among liberals,
39:23to focus
39:24on the raw
39:25economic issues
39:27at hand.
39:28And the other thing
39:29though that I
39:30really value
39:31as a humanities
39:32professor,
39:33and I'm,
39:33you know,
39:33at the end
39:34of my career
39:34but I don't see
39:35this being valued
39:36very much
39:37in the younger
39:37generation,
39:38is we've gone
39:39through a cultural
39:40revolution
39:40that's not a
39:42bottom-up
39:43cultural revolution
39:44it's a top-down
39:45cultural revolution
39:46where we have
39:47to feel like
39:47we're correcting
39:48and reforming
39:51the past
39:52so we have
39:52to decolonize
39:53this
39:54and decolonize
39:55that
39:55and there are
39:56even people
39:56who say
39:57that,
39:57you know,
39:58China
39:59was a colonial
40:00power
40:01so China
40:02is colonizing
40:03as well
40:04and,
40:04you know,
40:04we have to
40:05disrespect
40:07the past
40:08because we're
40:08this vanguard
40:09elite
40:10who have
40:10these identity
40:11politics
40:12that we can
40:12impose
40:13all over
40:13the world
40:13this is
40:14disastrous
40:15for culture
40:16it's
40:16disastrous
40:17it's
40:17ahistorical
40:19it promotes
40:20this kind
40:20of ignorance
40:21and anti-intellectualism
40:23and this has
40:23been what
40:24has been
40:25promoted
40:26by liberals
40:27you know,
40:27you're supposed
40:28to go through
40:28the canon
40:29and say
40:30I'm going
40:30to decolonize
40:31that,
40:31decolonize
40:32this,
40:32how are you
40:33going to
40:33decolonize
40:34the Vikings?
40:35The people
40:36who need
40:36to study
40:36like ancient
40:37languages
40:39or even
40:39Greek
40:40or Viking
40:42or,
40:43you know,
40:44I'm not even
40:44going to talk
40:45about East Asia
40:45but just
40:46the Western
40:46tradition
40:47how are you
40:48going to
40:48just reform
40:50that,
40:50make it
40:50disappear?
40:51There's such
40:51a contempt
40:52for the past
40:53a contempt
40:54for the
40:54enlightenment
40:55in musicology
40:56I have
40:57colleagues
40:57who are
40:57like,
40:58there are
40:58people who
40:59refuse to
40:59play Beethoven
41:00or Bach
41:01or Wagner
41:01because these
41:02people were
41:03male and
41:03they were
41:04they were
41:05male,
41:05they were
41:06patriarchal
41:07and they're
41:07part of
41:07European
41:08elites
41:09and we
41:09shouldn't
41:10care about
41:10this.
41:11You know
41:11who's
41:11going to
41:12keep this
41:13alive?
41:13Because
41:14Beethoven
41:15belongs to
41:16all of us.
41:17Symphonic music
41:17is one of
41:18the most
41:18complex forms
41:19of art
41:20that was
41:20ever created
41:22in the world
41:22and the
41:24West,
41:24the liberal
41:25West is
41:25ready to
41:26throw it
41:26in the
41:26garbage can
41:27of history
41:28and who
41:29will respect
41:30and conserve
41:30those techniques,
41:32those things?
41:32Who will say
41:33we all own
41:34that?
41:35Electricity,
41:36we all own
41:36that.
41:37Do we want
41:37to say
41:38it was
41:38like a
41:38colonial
41:39thing so
41:39we all
41:40have to
41:40go back
41:40to reading
41:41by candlelight?
41:42Well,
41:42I personally
41:43would not
41:43like to
41:43do that.
41:44The liberals
41:45don't actually
41:45believe in
41:46progress anymore.
41:47Here's another
41:48thing that
41:48people say
41:49on the
41:49left,
41:49the liberal
41:50left,
41:50even Bernie
41:51says this,
41:51we have
41:52to vote
41:54for the
41:54climate.
41:55Who's
41:55for the
41:56climate?
41:57To say
41:57that we're
41:58for the
41:58climate
41:59in liberal
42:00America
42:01means we're
42:03for recycling,
42:04we're against
42:05gas and
42:06oil
42:06industry.
42:07You know
42:07what we
42:08need is we
42:09need a
42:09reindustrialization
42:11through solar
42:13and wind
42:13and nuclear
42:14power because
42:16we can't get
42:17to carbon
42:18zero without
42:19more industry
42:20and technology.
42:21And this
42:25was another
42:26episode of
42:26China Now,
42:27a show that
42:28opens a window
42:28to the present
42:29and the future
42:30of the
42:30ice.
42:30And I hope
42:31you enjoy it
42:31and see you
42:32next time.
42:32seni and
42:44to be
42:45to be
42:46as
42:46as
42:47as
42:47as
42:48as
42:50as
42:50as
42:50as
42:51as
42:53as
42:53as