00:00Now, this week on Wu says we look into the global battle for talent.
00:05Now, this is against the backdrop of the United States' decision to tighten visas for students and skilled workers,
00:11while China is actively attracting international students and world-class faculty.
00:16Here's a segment from the conversation between Melissa Idris and Professor Emeritus Datuk-Datuk Wu Wingtai.
00:22Professor, can I just ask you, with the situation in the US and this stand that Trump is taking,
00:27do you see it similar to his position on tariffs?
00:32So this is the kind of talent version of his economic nationalism.
00:38Is it roughly, does this track in terms of Trump's brand?
00:43I think it is identity insecurity.
00:49Identity insecurity.
00:50He is very much afraid of what he sees as his catering.
00:57Do the fears of the whites, that they could be losing their identity.
01:04And the identity is narrowly interpreted by the Trump's group as Christian and white.
01:12And not just Christian, but aggressive evangelical Christianity.
01:18That is the extreme version that is driving the Trump policy on the visa front.
01:30For tariff, it is to bring jobs back to the United States.
01:36In this case, it's not bringing talents back to the United States.
01:41It is an exclusivist tendency, which is at odds with the US experience of where its most dynamic elements have come from.
01:56Elon Musk was born in South Africa, for example.
02:00And if you look at the head of Citibank, the head of Microsoft, were Indian-born, were India-born.
02:10So you could see that the Americans have been able to make general economic progress
02:17because the inflow of foreign talents make up for the failure in the domestic education
02:25at the primary school and secondary school level.
02:31America is very unusual in that excellent universities,
02:36but very lackluster primary and secondary schools,
02:43except at the most elite private school level.
02:48Yes, then you would see that they are just as good as anywhere else.
02:52So if America is taking this approach,
02:55is it to the rest of the world's gain?
02:57Is it to China's gain that, you know,
03:01if America is not interested in the best global talent,
03:05could China be an attractive proposition?
03:07As you said, they're clearly opening up,
03:10they're welcoming more and more foreign talent to their shows.
03:16Well, not everybody.
03:19People's tastes are different,
03:20so not everybody would prefer to go to China.
03:24Largely because Korea has opened up,
03:28Hong Kong is another part of China,
03:31but culturally and administratively quite distinct,
03:36more open,
03:38have opened up to foreign faculty
03:42as well as foreign students.
03:46Now, this closing of the border to foreign talents
03:51is not just about workers,
03:56it's also our students.
03:59It's much harder for students to get a visa
04:03to go to the United States.
04:06You certainly see that in Australia,
04:10which has drastically cut the number of students from China.
04:15That's why Australian National University
04:18is in a financial crisis
04:20and talking about eliminating whole programs.
04:25Catch the full conversation on Awani International
04:28and across our social media platforms.
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