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00:09Hello, TeleCity English presents a new episode of China Now, a WaveMedia's production that
00:14showcases the culture, technology, and politics of the Asian giant.
00:18In this first segment, China Currents takes a deep dive into the week's top stories, from
00:23the Chinese robot named Lightning that finished a half marathon nearly seven minutes faster
00:29than the human world record, the Chinese physicist's first creation of ball lightning in a lab.
00:35Let's see.
00:41Hello and welcome to this week's China Currents.
00:44In this episode, you will see a Chinese robot called Lightning finished a half marathon nearly
00:50seven minutes faster than the human world record.
00:53Chinese physicists first created ball lightning in a lab.
00:57FAW unveiled China's first multi-domain fusion automotive chip.
01:03China's next-generation brain-computer interface heads for ear and clinical trials.
01:08Huawei launched its first fully native Harmony OS laptop, challenging Windows.
01:15Let's take them one by one.
01:16On April the 19th, at the 2026 Beijing E-Town humanoid robot half marathon, a bipedal robot
01:24named Lightning, built by Honor, crossed the finish line in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, winning
01:31the autonomous navigation category.
01:33To put that in perspective, the current men's half marathon world record stands at 57 minutes
01:39and 20 seconds. Lightning beat the fastest human on earth by nearly seven minutes.
01:44And it wasn't just one strong performer.
01:47The first three robots across the finish line all came from Honor.
01:51The company swept the top three spots in the autonomous category with finishing times of
01:5550 minutes, 26 seconds, 50 minutes, 56 seconds, and 53 minutes and one second.
02:01The progress from last year is staggering. At the inaugural event in 2025, the winning time
02:07was two hours and 40 minutes, and only six teams managed to finish at all.
02:13One year later, the field has exploded from 20 teams to over 100, with 47 completing the
02:19course and the winning time has improved by roughly 68%.
02:24The route itself covered urban highways, motorsport road, and park trails, pushing every aspect of
02:30the robot's stability, endurance, and decision-making. Lightning stands 169 centimeters tall. Its effective
02:37leg length of 0.95 meters was modeled on the biomechanics of elite distant runners.
02:44The in-house joint modules deliver a peak torque of 400 newton meters. For cooling, a critical challenge
02:52over a 21 kilometer run, Honor adapted its smartphone liquid cooling technology. Micro channels thread
02:59directly into the motors, circulating coolant at over 4 liters per minute, and a preparatory motion control
03:06algorithm fused with multi-sensor data keeps this robot stable at high speed, even on uneven terrain.
03:13This makes the first time a humanoid robot has officially beaten the human world record in an
03:20endurance event, a milestone that signals the qualitative leap in robotic perception,
03:25real-time decision-making, and sustained locomotion. While robots are outrunning humans on the track,
03:32Chinese physicists were chasing down a different kind of lightning, one that has eluded science for
03:38more than 200 years. On April 16th, a research team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a world
03:44first result in nature protonics. They successfully created and captured a glowing sphere in the laboratory
03:52that closely resembles naturally occurring ball lightning, confirming that its true nature is a
03:58structure known as an electromagnetic soliton. Ball lightning, sometimes called rolling thunder in
04:05Chinese folklore, is one of the nature's most enduring mysteries. A luminous orb that hovers in the air,
04:12drifts through rooms, and occasionally passes straight through walls. Science fiction author Liu Cixin devoted an
04:19entire novel to imagining what it might be. For over two centuries, scientists proposed theory after
04:25theory, but never had a repeatable experiment to back any of them up. Now, a Chinese team has finally
04:31delivered one. So what does this mean for the rest of us? First, energy. The most remarkable property of
04:38ball lightning is that of a blob of superheated plasma, which should fly apart in an instant, somehow
04:44holds itself together, trapping its own energy in a stable sphere. That trick, energy confining itself
04:51without any external force, is exactly what fusion researchers have been chasing for decades. If we
04:57can fully understand how a ball of fire locks in its own energy without an external magnetic field,
05:03it could fundamentally reshape how we design future fusion reactors. Second, the key tool behind this
05:10experiment is terahertz radiation, often called the last frontier of the electromagnetic spectrum.
05:17Terahertz waves can see through clothing and packaging without harming the human body,
05:22making them enormously promising for security screening and medical imaging. This research pushed
05:28terahertz waves to unprecedented relativistic intensities, which means the field of terahertz
05:35photonics itself just took a major step forward. Third, electromagnetic energy storage. If scientists
05:42can learn to precisely control these solitons, structures that essentially trap energy inside
05:48themselves, it could open the door to an entirely new way of storing energy, not with batteries,
05:54not with chemical reactions, but by packaging energy within electromagnetic fields alone. That sounds
06:00like science fiction, but then again, ball lightning itself sounded like science fiction for 200 years,
06:06and now it's been made in a lab. Next, from a centuries-old mystery in physics to a very modern
06:13breakthrough
06:14in automotive silicon. On April the 16th, China FAW group announced it had jointly developed China's
06:21first automotive-grade advanced process multi-domain fusion chip, dubbed Hongxi-1. The chip fills a critical gap
06:30in the domestic supply chain targeting smart vehicles' heavy reliance on imported high performance
06:36processors. Hongxi-1 is not a conventional single function chip. It is a central compute processor
06:43designed for next-generation vehicle architectures, and its defining achievement is consolidating five
06:49traditionally separate domains, driver assistance, smart cockpit, vehicle body control, connectivity,
06:56and security, onto a single die. In industry shorthand, that's a cockpit, driving, and control unified on one chip,
07:04doing the work of five. Hongxi-1 is built on a 5nm process and delivers 68 tops of AI compute.
07:14Compared to
07:14Qualcomm's SA-8775, a widely used benchmark in industry, it offers 21.7% more CPU throughput,
07:24and 15.4% better graphics performance. It supports up to 12 simultaneous display outputs, high fidelity
07:32audio, integrated parking and driving assistance, and high performance image signal processing,
07:38with headroom to spare for future workloads. On safety, it meets the highest standards in industry. An
07:45independent on-chip hardware security island using hardware level isolation achieves ASILD, the top
07:53functional safety rating, while also complying with China's national level 2 cryptographic security
07:59requirements. Even under extreme fault conditions, critical control signals remain intact, the system
08:06stays operational. The practical impact is significant. By merging multiple electronic control units into one,
08:13the chip substantially reduces the number of ECUs and the complexity of wiring harnesses across the vehicle,
08:20cutting both system costs and development timelines. Over the past few years, the global automotive chip
08:26market has been widely volatile. A single MCU that once cost a few dollars surged at times to nearly a
08:33hundred. A domestically controlled high performance chip solution gives Chinese automakers considerably more
08:39leverage when prices swing. Hongqi1 will go into future Hongqi models and is expected to catalyze
08:47broader upgrades across China's automotive chip supply chain, from the brains inside a car to the
08:53interface between brain and machine. On April 19th, the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, or CIBR, disclosed
09:02that BayNop2, an invasive brain-computer interface system, has completed development of a 512-channel fully
09:11implantable wireless engineering prototype. The device has been implanted in mukak monkeys and has operated
09:18stably inside the skull for over two years. Clinical verification is expected to begin by the end of 2026, with
09:26plans to
09:26carry out 50 surgeries across 10 hospitals nationwide. The system's core components include proprietary
09:33high-throughput flexible microwire electrodes, a thousand-channel high-speed neural signal acquisition
09:40unit, and the world's first generative neural decoding algorithm based on feed-forward control. The
09:47implantable electrodes use biocompatible flexible materials thinner than one-tenth to one-hundredth the
09:54width of a human hair. In prior animal trials, BayNop2 enabled mukkukes to control a robotic arm
10:02through thought alone, interpreting and grasping moving targets in two-dimensional space with remarkable
10:09precision. Its predecessor, BayNop1, takes a semi-invasive approach. Electrodes sit on top of the dura mater,
10:16rather than penetrating brain tissue. That system has already been implanted in human patients,
10:22all of whom have recovered well and regained motor or speech function. BayNop2 goes deeper,
10:28literally. Its electrodes enter the brain tissue directly, capturing far more precise neural signals.
10:35The system is positioned as a domestic counterpart to Neuralink's latest generation device.
10:41In March, Zhao Jizong, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, highlighted the urgent clinical need.
10:47China has over 3.7 million patients with spinal cord injuries alone, alongside millions more affected
10:54by stroke, ALS, and other neurological conditions. Brain-computer interfaces offer these patients an
11:01entirely new pathway to recovery. BayNop2 is now racing to close the final gap, from lab bench to operating
11:09table. Our last story brings the focus to something closer to everyday life. The computer on your desk.
11:16On April 20th, at its Pura series and full scenario product launch, Huawei officially unveiled the Mate
11:23Book 14 Harmony OS edition, the first consumer laptop powered by its in-house Kirin X90 processor and
11:32running Harmony OS 6.1. Pricing starts at 6,599 yuan, roughly 900 US dollars. But the hardware and price
11:43is not
11:43really the headline. What matters is the ecosystem. Through Harmony OS's super device framework,
11:49the laptop connects seamlessly with Huawei phones, tablets, smart watches, and smart displays. One
11:56tap and they work as a unified system. Huawei's AI assistant, Xiao Yi, has been brought over from the
12:02phone in full. Real-time meeting transcription, AI-generated research reports, interactive problem
12:09solving for students, and more. On the security side, Harmony OS 6's Star Shield architecture provides
12:16end-to-end protection from the kernel to the application layer. And notably, it is the world's
12:22first laptop with built-in AI deep fake detection for video calls. With this launch, Harmony OS now
12:29spans phones, tablets, PCs, wearables, and smart home devices, completing full scenario coverage.
12:37For China's domestic operating system, this marks the transition from functional to genuinely ready
12:42for the mainstream. It's not just another laptop launch. It's a signal that Harmony OS has matured
12:48into a complete ecosystem. And that wraps up our five stories for the week. From a robot that outruns
12:56every human alive, to a laptop running an entirely Chinese-built operating system, what we are witnessing
13:02isn't just a string of individual breakthroughs. It's Chinese technology accelerating from the lab to the
13:08racetrack, from the factory floor to the desktop. That's all for this week's China Currents. Thank you for
13:14watching, and see you next week. We have a short break now, but don't go away, because we'll be right
13:25back.
13:35Welcome back to China Now. In this second segment, the Gi Shu blog invite us to go deep into how
13:41did the
13:42Chinese Revolution happened, and the historic memory of the Great March of the Red Army. Later,
13:48Thinkers Forum welcomes Shaung Rain, founder of China Market Research Group, to discuss the crisis
13:54in the Middle East, and how the unprovoked war on Iran is reshaping global power dynamics with China
14:01China as a key strategic actor. Let's have a look.
14:27How did the Chinese Revolution happen? That's a question a lot of people don't know,
14:32they don't understand, and we're going to find the answers here today at the Red Belt Museum in Guizhou,
14:38China. This museum highlights the victories of the Long March, which took place from 1935 to 1936,
14:46and the Long March, for those of you who don't know, started in Jiangxi on the Fujian border region,
14:52when about 130,000 of the Red Army troops were facing near annihilation, and they decided to do a last
15:01-ditch
15:01effort and relocate to more appropriate, safer ground and adopt new fighting techniques and a whole new
15:09path for their revolution. My name is Christopher Hulali, and one of the biggest questions that I've had,
15:16especially as a young person learning about the Long March, is how did they deal with logistics?
15:22How did they deal with, you know, just the everyday, day-to-day necessities that were needed
15:27for such a large group of people traversing such rough terrain and mountainous terrain and, you know,
15:34rural terrain? How did they eat? How did they get supplies? So that's something that I'm very interested in,
15:40because it's something that sometimes we forget to think about, is how was the relationship of the
15:46volunteers and the sort of partisan guerrilla forces with the local population, and how did the local
15:52population at all stops and all along the way help those soldiers?
15:58Hello, everyone. My name is Denis Rogatjuk, the international director of El Silano, and here we are in Buizhou.
16:06And one particular question that I've been asking myself ever since coming to China, especially since
16:11coming to Buizhou, is, you know, what place does the Long March hold in the mindset of the people
16:17of Buizhou? The historic memory of that march, the ancestors of many of these peoples, they would have
16:24either been part of the march, or they would have remembered the Red Army coming through Buizhou, attempting
16:29to transform the society, redistributing land among the peasants, redistributing food among them, and really
16:35showing a different path towards a different China, a socialist China. And I also like to find out how
16:41that memory relates the anti-poverty programs that were implemented here in Buizhou and all throughout
16:47China. All right, Chris, what did you think of that? I mean, I got emotional. I cried. It was,
16:52I thought it was very, very moving. I thought one thing that's clear is that when you have an ideology,
16:57when you have something that binds the people, when you have something to fight for, when you have a
17:01patriotic spirit that no mountain, no swamp, no raging river can squash, can get rid of,
17:08then I think that you can achieve anything. And as you've seen here, the enormous achievements in
17:12the 1930s led to the achievements in the 1940s up until today. I just think that it's such a heroic
17:18history. It's such a beautiful feat of not only Chinese history, but of human history. And I think
17:24that modern China is a result of that. And it will continue, as they said, to do many long marches
17:29to come. And I think that the future belongs to China in many ways. The future belongs at least to
17:33the Chinese model.
17:43We are now in Sunyi city in the Guizhou province of China. And we're actually at the exact location
17:50where the Sunyi conference took place, which was essentially the consolidation of power for Mao Zedong
17:56for the first time for the military and political leadership of the Communist Party of China.
18:02Previously, the military command was led by Bo Gu and by Otto Braun, and they were pursuing a path of
18:10conventional warfare against the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek, which was proving disastrous.
18:16By January of 1935, the Communist Party, the Red Army, had lost half of its troops. And that was just
18:23at the
18:23very start of this whole operation. Mao's rise came after his sharp critique of this military leadership.
18:31He pursued a different path of warfare, that being guerrilla warfare. He's known as
18:36the GOAT of guerrilla warfare, the greatest of all time. All the resistance movements that you know today,
18:42that you're watching fight all across the world, they learned from Mao Zedong. And they learned from his
18:47military thought, which led to the eventual victory. The numerous victories, over 600 battles were fought
18:53in the long march. Mao did not become the chairman of the party at this time, but it was when
18:58he
18:58consolidated his military power. He was made a member of the standing committee and Bo Gu and Otto Braun
19:05were essentially a sidelined from any sort of supreme military command. So we're in the exact location now
19:12where this meeting took place. The meeting lasted three days. And we're going to take a look through
19:16the museum and through this site to understand and learn more about what took place here and how it
19:22changed the course of history and secured the eventual victory of the Chinese Communist Party,
19:27and ultimately modern China today.
19:36The spirit of the Long March was the perseverance, the discipline and the sacrifice, for sure.
19:41It was the endurance of these volunteers. It was not easy. It was not like a march on flat land.
19:47It was a march in combat on their constant fighting, whether in front, in back, you know, raiding.
19:53It was traveling through really difficult landscape, landscape mountains, valleys, swamps, grasslands,
20:00even up into the northern part where they get to the end in Gansu and Shanxi. It's like almost desert.
20:06So it's very difficult terrain and very difficult for logistics. I was a soldier.
20:10I understand that it's difficult to get water, food. How did they survive? So that perseverance
20:15with wounds, with struggles, with the bodily ailments, that kind of perseverance and discipline
20:21is something that really distinguishes the volunteers in the Red Army of the Long March versus anyone else
20:28in other conventional wars where they have everything, including McDonald's and Burger King in their bases.
20:33There was nothing like that here. These Red Army soldiers really sacrificed a lot with very little
20:38and were victorious in the end.
20:45Well, here we are at the end of our tour of this magnificent museum dedicated to the conference
20:50at Zunyi and dedicated also to the Long March. You know, this momentous undertaking by the Communist
20:56Party of China and by the Red Army from 1934 to 1936, a period of time that really defines the
21:05place of the
21:05Red Army, but also defines the leadership of Chairman Mao Zedong. What we learned here in this
21:111-2 has been truly amazing, something that's actually hard to learn almost anywhere else or hard to learn
21:17just from history books. The Long March, I believe, represents the tenacity, the fighting spirit
21:24of the Red Army and, of course, the military brilliance of Chairman Mao Zedong. And in particular,
21:29the part dedicated to Zunyi was not just the most important, but also was the most shocking to us.
21:35Just because of the sheer number of forces that were the Red Army at the face, the massive casualties
21:41that they have to suffer. At one point, losing 30,000 soldiers in a single battle, uncrossing the river.
21:48However, despite the challenges, despite the internal problems, which were, of course, resolved at the Zunyi
21:54meeting, the Long March and its continuation, the brilliant maneuvers that the Red Army was able
21:59to implement during many of its escapes from the Kuomintang during the successful strategic retreats
22:06and eventually ending up in Yan'an and joining with the 26th Army in Yan'an, really explains,
22:12really, the success of the Chinese Revolution.
22:18That we saw communism with Chinese characteristics fundamentally embrace in a way that changed the
22:25course of this country and led to the creation of modern China.
22:36We're about to meet with some local party cadres, some veterans from the People's Liberation Army.
22:41So it should be very interesting. We're going to get to ask them a few questions and learn from
22:46them because that's why we're here. That's what's so important, learning about the Long March,
22:50the history of how China became China, and how we can maybe fix some of the problems in our own
22:56country, God willing. I think that everyone should learn from China, and I think that it starts
23:02with here, where it all began.
23:03What's the biggest lesson that you say that you may have learned in your lives, politically speaking,
23:12or in the military, that you'd hoped to pass on to the next generation to safeguard the advances
23:19that were made for China in your lives?
23:21I was born before the founding of New China, which means my earliest memories are from a time before
23:26the country, as we know it today, even existed. And it is quite remarkable to think about how much
23:30has changed since then. Then I'll put it this way. I was born before the founding of New China.
23:35My birthplace is just ahead, 50 meters away. My family was completely poor. Back then,
23:43we suffered under the oppression of landlords and local tyrants. It wasn't until the founding of New
23:50China in 1949 that we truly stood up and became masters of our own lives. At that time, I finally
24:00started school. There was no economic support back then. The whole of Zunyi had no economic pillars.
24:06The people's lives were very difficult, extremely difficult. Truly, it was a struggle to find the next
24:12meal, let alone eat meat. We only had meat during the New Year or other festivals. But now, we can
24:18really see that Zunyi's development is actually quite impressive, especially for Guizhou. We have a
24:25strong industrial sector, a solid foundation in agriculture, and a growing service sector. All kinds
24:32of industries are emerging, developing, and truly thriving. We must educate the next generation to study
24:38hard and keep moving forward. We need to raise our standard of living, the people's standard of living,
24:44to new heights. Let our national defense and our technology grow even stronger and lead the way in
24:50the world. That's all I have to say. The whole world is just one global village. Since you are also
24:57Communist Party members, we are all one family. In the future, we must all work together with one heart
25:05to make the whole world better, greater, and move towards more prosperity.
25:16We are here in Guizhou, China. We are here to check out some of the programs that have been implemented
25:24to reduce poverty in Guizhou, and I'm sure all across the country. It's going to be a beautiful day. We're
25:31here with the local farmers headed into the capital city from the villages about 30 minutes outside of
25:37the capital. And as I come on this show, I want to reflect on, of course, the historic
25:44approach and how the principles and values were so important to the success that are embodied today
25:53by the party, by the cadre, uh, in implementing these programs, which are responsible for lifting
25:59millions of people out of poverty all across the country. So we're going to be taking a look at all
26:04of this. We're going to get on the ground and try to find out what's going on.
26:11The bus route 252 we're looking at is a customized line specifically for villagers to, uh, sell their
26:17vegetables. This means Guiyang citizens can enjoy our fresh vegetables in the shortest time possible.
26:23The opening of this route is more than just a simple bus line. Actually, it's reflected in the
26:27villagers' bright smiles. This is a concrete example of our bus service serving the people. Since this
26:33route was officially opened on June 1st, 2024, we've served about 700,000 passenger trips for
26:38villagers and transported over 1800 tons of fruits and vegetables. This kind of route is now present
26:44in over 30 relevant villages and towns in Guiyang. After this bus departs at 620 and arrives at Daingpo,
26:51there are specific areas designated by enterprises and the local government for them to sell their
26:56vegetables. It has brought the urban and rural integration of Guiyang closer. It also reflects that
27:00Guiyang is a very warm city, so everyone is welcome to take the route 252 and feel the breath of
27:06spring.
27:12You were here all today, this morning. What do you think about, uh, this program we're here in Guaizhou
27:17and what you're seeing? I moved to China in 2013 to 2015. I've seen a lot of growth and development.
27:22I
27:22moved here a year after Xi Jinping took the general secretary position and he started a massive program
27:28of poverty alleviation, which was a continuation of the CPC's goals, um, and multiple five-year plans.
27:35And really it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable to see just this city alone. I came to Guiyang in 2015.
27:41Just in 10 years, 11 years now, it has, it's completely changed. I couldn't recognize it.
27:46Unbelievable. I was driving with the, with the, with our guide and I was like, none of this was here.
27:51He said,
27:51it's all new. And he's local. He said, you can't imagine in 10 years, we've, it's like we went 50
27:56years ahead.
28:04We are here in the Guaizhou province of China. Still behind me, you can see the Tava show bridge.
28:11I mean, as an American, I see here, I think, wow, this is amazing. This would take like decades to
28:16build
28:16generations to build in the U S but here they build these sorts of bridges just like that.
28:22But really the, the most incredible thing about where we're at right now is not the bridge.
28:27This bridge here is actually named after a man who built a water canal that cascades along the mountains
28:35of this region and delivers water to the rural farm workers who live here. Huang Duafa,
28:41who built this canal. He was born in 1935 before the establishment of the people's Republic of China.
28:48He grew up here in Guaizhou province in the rural region. And this area before there was a proper
28:54canal before there were these opportunities, right? There was literally nothing so much,
28:59nothing that, you know, they were living in eternal droughts. They had no water and they couldn't grow
29:03anything. They couldn't even grow rice here. They just grew some potatoes and some basic crops like that,
29:09but really had no opportunity whatsoever. It took them 36 years building this water canal. They
29:16were chipping away with pickaxes on the mountainside by hand effect. When Huang Duafa was in his twenties,
29:23in 1958, he became the secretary of the local communist party here. He essentially got elected on the
29:31premise of three major promises to the people here. He wanted to bring water, build a road and provide
29:37electricity to the people. And you think without any sort of, you know, heavy machinery, this is the
29:421950s. How do you achieve something like that? Just sounded to the people like this was a politician's
29:47promise, right? But they were inspired by the likes of old Chinese tales and stories that talked about
29:53moving mountains and anything can be done through persistence. And this was a 39 year project. It spans
30:00over three mountain ranges, nine kilometers. They edged this water canal into insane terrain. And
30:07through, you know, acts of God almost, they were able to deliver this water to the people in this region.
30:30It's very happy to see you guys. We care about development China. Wanted to see you. It's beautiful.
30:37It's beautiful.
30:59It's home.
31:02And I'm a executive board member with Chris of the American Communist Party. And we greatly thank
31:07you for giving us the honor to be here. And we find your story to be extremely inspiring, heroic,
31:13and unthinkable. What was the inspiration that led Mr. Dafa and the other members of the community to
31:23embark on such an impossible project as the water canals? Because if you were to tell a group of
31:31people in most countries, they'd think it's impossible. Why waste our time? What inspired
31:36them to literally move mountains? I was born in 1935. I've done some small things, a few modest
31:43contributions for my hometown. Looking back, our hardworking farmers really had nothing to wear or eat.
31:49The main reason was because there was very little water there. Almost no water. Water is the lifeblood
31:54of agricultural production. Without water, there's no harvest. With water, we have grain. Without it,
32:00we have none. As the General Secretary said, in China, we have people from all walks of life,
32:06coming from many different backgrounds and experiences. No matter where they are from or what they do,
32:11all these people are united by a strong sense of togetherness and community. I came here today
32:18really thinking about the small things that I have done for my hometown. As a party member, each of us
32:25should always strive to be a good model, to be advanced, and to make sure we do not fall behind.
32:32This year, this is our party secretary. He'll tell the stories of rural revitalization.
32:37After our development through this poverty alleviation, our people's pockets have filled up.
32:42From 2019, we only had an income of a few thousand yuan. Now it has reached 10,000 yuan. Per
32:49capita income
32:49was 5,000 plus yuan. Now it's reached 17,000 plus yuan. The people's housing conditions used to be
32:55very dilapidated. Now, through poverty alleviation, they've all improved. Our water, electricity, roads,
33:01communications, and housing have been fully revitalized. And the people's sense of happiness and
33:07security has greatly improved.
33:14We are here at the tallest bridge in the world. It is the Guajong Gorge Bridge in Guizhou, China.
33:21Absolutely stunning. Two times larger than the tallest bridge in America. Two times taller than
33:27the Eiffel Tower. 1.4 times the size of the Empire State Building. And all of this was built in
33:33three
33:33and a half years with a price tag of 280 million dollars. It turned what was a three to four
33:38hour
33:39trip into a three to four minute drive across this bridge. It made it extremely easy for farmers,
33:45for rural workers, for migrant workers, for transportation, trade, cargo, livestock transportation,
33:51tourists, to travel here across this region in Guizhou. Not only is this the tallest bridge in the world,
33:57it is also the longest suspension bridge in a mountainous region. And, you know, that's part of
34:04the difficulty of building this. I'm trying to block the mic as we film because it is so windy.
34:09You know, there are other tall bridges in the world, sure, yes. But the terrain here, mountainous terrain,
34:14I mean, the wind, there's a giant river below. There's a whole lot of things that could go wrong
34:18in building a structure like this. But there was not a single injury, not a single death in the construction
34:23of this bridge. What do you think about this, Nellie? The tallest bridge in the world.
34:27That is absolutely amazing. I love it. It's so cool. That's it.
34:33We are here with Secretary Xu, our comrade. She's the secretary of the Hwajang County Party Committee.
34:39We're also enjoying some local Hwajang noodles. Is that? Yes, yes. Hwajang rice noodles.
34:45Yes. Okay. And they're spicy. It's spicy. No, not spicy. Maybe you can have one side.
34:51We'll see. All right. So this is the local cuisine. Hwajang spicy noodle.
34:56Hmm. Very good. I love it. Spicy. It is spicy. Spicy? Yes. Yes. Very good.
35:04We love Guizhou. We love this bridge. We love China. Everyone come check it out. This is such a crazy
35:11view.
35:23So we are here at the Hwajang Gorge Bridge at the end of our trip here in Guizhou. And we've
35:29had an
35:29opportunity to really understand not only the Long March in its history, but the Long March of China
35:35through the modern period of time. I posed the question early on, how did the Red Army survive
35:41this Long March? How did they deal with their logistics and their supplies? And what I ended
35:45up learning from this trip was that, first of all, at the beginning of the Long March, the Red Army
35:50took
35:50all of their supplies. They took everything that they could possibly carry with them. But as you know,
35:55and I'm sure that you will understand from learning the history, the Red Army was being chased by Chiang
36:02Kai-shek's troops by the Kuomintang forces. So what ended up happening was they started to shed off a lot
36:08of the
36:08non-essential supplies and goods. And then throughout the march, Red Army soldiers and volunteers would
36:15take supplies from their fallen comrades and continue on the Long March, as well as taking
36:20what little supplies they could get from locals along the way. And I think that there's a lot to learn
36:24from the Long March historically, to go through so many hardships, so many struggles, eventually to
36:29build a new China and to continue that development, which this bridge symbolizes above me.
36:41The Long March was, of course, one of the most important, fundamental events in the history of
36:47modern China. And one of the important aspects, I believe, of this is the historic memory. How that
36:55event is being remembered by generations since, and particularly how that event is being commemorated
37:02as well. And that answer came to me at the Red Ribbon Museum in Inguanyang. A magnificent display of
37:10artwork, holographics, and of course of the performances. What is the Long March of today in China? And I
37:16thought to myself, these must be the anti-poverty programs. And I believe that the answer to that question
37:21as to how have the new anti-poverty programs have impacted China, well, that answer is right about me.
37:27The Hujiang Bridge definitely serves as the example of the achievements of this stage of the
37:34transformation and of the rejuvenation of China. We have to remember that anti-poverty development
37:40is not just about giving cash to the provinces. It is also about magnificent mega-projects, such as this
37:47one, that serve to connect provinces between themselves, also to serve as the example of what
37:53is humanly possible under a system that exists in China today.
38:05When we first came out to China, I asked the question, how does the Long March and the spirit
38:10of the Long March serve the vision and serve the common drive of the people of China today? And
38:17I have to say that basically each and every place that we stopped on this trip, each and every street
38:22that we turned down, I found my answer. It's a drive that has led people to achieve the unthinkable,
38:28the impossible. And people are taught the history of the Long March from a very young age. It is
38:34embraced in all the schooling. In China, there's a strong patriotic bond with the revolutionary
38:39principles that were instilled through the discipline of the Communist Party and embraced
38:45in the unthinkable Long March. We see that yesterday when we went to the water canals in the Sun Yi
38:52greater city region that were built over the span of 36 years etched by hand in the cadre of the
38:59Communist Party of China. We see that with the farmers who are able to establish new trade routes
39:06into cities to connect their farms, their lands that they are very proud of, their agricultural goods
39:11with the people in Guiyong, capital city of the Guizhou province. And of course, we see it here today
39:18at the Guizhou Gorge Bridge, which is the tallest bridge in the world, but it should not be forgotten.
39:25Nine of the top 10 largest bridges in the world are here in China. Five of the top 10 tallest
39:30bridges in the
39:31world are here in the Guizhou province. And this is all being done to serve the needs of the farmers,
39:36the agricultural workers, the migrant workers, and the citizens who live here. It's unthinkable
39:42that a government would ever do anything for 3,000, 5,000 villagers or rural farm workers.
39:49But here in China, they do the unthinkable for populations as small as that and to serve their needs.
39:55And it's because of the simple principles that were fought for in the long march to fight for prosperity,
40:03to fight for a government that represents and serve the needs of the people, and overcoming all
40:08obstacles, all odds in the process to achieve that goal. When we sat down with the veterans of the
40:14People's Liberation Army, I asked this veteran, I asked the cadre who've been a part of this party
40:21for 60 years, you know, what is it that made the long march possible? What is it that makes China
40:27possible? And he said, we remember what it was like before. We remember the dark horrors,
40:32the darkest times, harassment from the landlords, the torture that was imposed upon us from, you know,
40:39the upper echelons of this feudal society. We remember that. And we say, never again,
40:44we'll never return to that. We're fighting for something better. And that's what they're fighting
40:48for today. That is the spirit of the long march that will be embraced by all Chinese leadership
40:53in the future, as it is accountable to the people, something that is unique to this country,
40:59socialism with Chinese characteristics. And that's why it is so successful. So I got to say,
41:04I'm absolutely inspired after traveling here. I am left learning so much and also having many more
41:11questions, which means I need to come back and learn more.
41:15If there is a winner out of the tension, China is the big winner of the tension.
41:22So tension between the US and Iran is heralding a new world order. I think analysts, consumers,
41:30investors are underestimating the shift, not just economically, but politically, that's going to
41:37happen in the world from the tension between these two countries. Now, when you look at it,
41:42over the last 50 years, the world has been led by the United States in a rules-based world order.
41:49Now,
41:50let's not mistake things. This US world-based order was really one for America and its allies,
41:58some would call vassal states in Western Europe, but it was a world order based off of some sort of
42:04rules.
42:05Now under Trump, it's all about might is right. What we've seen over the last several months
42:11is that Trump has kidnapped Maduro in Venezuela, has blockaded Cuba, causing thousands, if not hundreds
42:20of thousands of people to be malnourished, to be unable to get medical care. And so Trump is changing
42:27the rules of the game. And I think people are underestimating what this means, because once
42:32Trump is no longer president of the United States, you're going to see global superpowers, global middle
42:39powers and small countries are all going to jockey to figure out what is their role and what should be
42:45the new world order. It's very different from what we've seen in the last 50 years.
42:51And the word that I want to use today is leverage. Leverage is the word that the United States under
42:58Trump has talked about with Iran. The United States has said that they have all the leverage over Iran
43:04because they can bomb them, because they can stop them from refining nuclear energy, and because they
43:12have the ability to assassinate or kill anybody in Iran's leadership that they want to. But I want to
43:18talk about that word leverage, because the last time we talked about that word, the United States was using
43:25leverage to say that they had the power over China in the trade war. And in those days, as I
43:32argued here,
43:32the Americans under Scott Besson and Marco Rubio underestimated China's strength and overestimated
43:40their own. China held all the cards in the trade war. You can see first that anything that the Americans
43:47can make, the Chinese can make themselves or buy from other countries. We've talked about this in the
43:52past. Instead of buying American beef, they'd buy beef from Australia. Instead of buying oil from America,
43:59they'd buy oil from Canada. Instead of buying soybeans from America, they'd buy oil from Brazil. And that's
44:05why China won the trade war. And they also won this trade war by holding up the sword of Damocles
44:12over
44:12the United States, which is rare earths. Because China refines 90 percent of the world's rare earths,
44:20and about 98 percent of the high-end rare earths. But let's look at that word leverage again. Because the
44:26United States has said that they have leverage over Iran. They really don't. They're underestimating
44:32the ability of the Iranians to push back in the Strait of Hormuz, and most importantly, politically.
44:38When you have the current Ayatollah Khomeini, when his family members were slaughtered,
44:43when his kids were hurt, when all of his friends were killed, that person has leverage because he has
44:50nothing else to lose, while the United States has everything to lose. You can see under Trump,
44:58he looks at the height of the stock market. He wants the Dow Jones to be above 50,000. Americans
45:04are
45:04complaining as gas has crossed 100 and maybe on the way to 130 U.S. dollars a barrel. So they're
45:11facing
45:12$6, $7 per gallon in gas stations across California and across the United States. So when you look at
45:21leverage, we need to be a lot more nuanced as to who really has leverage. Just like last year,
45:28the United States underestimated China in the trade war, and this year they're making the same mistake
45:35when it comes to leverage of Iran. But we're seeing a shift. China, if there is a winner out
45:43of the tension, China is the big winner of the tension because Iran has a leverage over the United
45:49States to cause more pain to America, and China has more leverage to cause pain to America. And they
45:56are seen as the stable, adult, responsible power in the world. So you've seen just over the last two
46:04months the presidents or prime ministers of Spain, France, Germany, the U.K. have all made a
46:13pilgrimage to Beijing to meet with the party chairman of the CPC, Xi Jinping, basically because they know
46:20they have to de-risk from America and move closer to China's economic orbit. It's very clear that China
46:30has a leverage over the world. What you're starting to see is a shift in power towards China. You can
46:38see
46:38a lot of the Middle Eastern oil-producing nations, instead of selling in U.S. dollars or the petrodollar,
46:45they want to switch to the renminbi, which is being nicknamed the petroyuan or the renminbi,
46:50because a lot of countries want to be able to de-risk from the United States. Marco Rubio,
46:57the Secretary of State of the U.S. has said, in five years, placing sanctions on other countries
47:03or other governments or other individuals is going to be a thing of the past, because a lot of
47:09countries don't want to use the U.S. dollar anymore. They're starting to use the yuan or the renminbi
47:15as a reserve currency. And that is part of the rising leverage that China has over other nations.
47:21Now, we've talked about leverage with rare earths in the past, because in reality, it's not hard to
47:28find rare earth minerals. It exists in Ukraine. It exists in Greenland. It exists in Brazil. It exists
47:35all throughout the world. The difficulty is in the refining. Only China, and maybe a few little
47:41refineries by Linus in Australia, have strong refining capabilities. That's what gave China the leverage over
47:49the United States during the trade war. And that's why the Trump administration had to back down. And
47:55to Trump's credit, he's been fairly conciliatory towards the Chinese over the last six months,
48:01because it's very clear that America doesn't have leverage over China. Now, but here's the thing,
48:08and this is why I'm getting more bullish on China's economy in the short-term, medium, and long-terms.
48:14It's not just rare earths that China controls. It's not just the fact that China manufactures
48:2030 percent of the world's goods. It's that China has the leverage because it controls refining,
48:27not just in rare earths, not just manufacturing in ibuprofen and antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals,
48:34but because they have the refining or the smelting capabilities in nickel, chrome ore, stainless steel,
48:44tungsten, copper. All of the world commodities are really being controlled by China at the refining process.
48:53I'll give an example. I just got back from South Africa where I was meeting with the owner of a
48:59major
48:59chrome ore mine. Now, chrome ore is only available in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Turkey, Russia, and a few
49:07other countries. But so it's very important that a country is able to control chrome ore because chrome
49:16ore is, once it's refined, becomes chromium. And 18 percent of stainless steel is made from chromium.
49:24Without stainless steel, we wouldn't be able to make automobiles. We wouldn't be able to make subways
49:30or airplanes. And perhaps most importantly, we wouldn't be able to put up tall buildings. Without
49:35stainless steel, without chromium, and thus without chrome ore, you won't be able to see the skyscrapers
49:42dot the world. So when I was in South Africa was helping a major chrome ore mine try to sell
49:51itself.
49:52And the biggest buyers that came in circling, almost like vultures, were Chinese investors.
49:58Because the Chinese are able to get access to low interest loans from state-owned banks.
50:04They're getting support and direction from Beijing and the central government to buy up
50:10access to these commodities. So what you see all over the world, in Zimbabwe, to Congo, to South Africa,
50:18you see Chinese companies are circling around and trying to buy up the raw materials or commodities.
50:24And once they do that, they're shipping it all back to China to go through the refining process.
50:31So when Trump is trying to bully other nations, especially China, they realize at the end of the
50:39day, China has the leverage. It has the manufacturing capability and it has the refining and smeltering
50:47capabilities for the world's commodities that power the global economy. And that's something that China
50:54has not threatened yet, has not pushed on the rest of the world. But I think it's very clear after
51:00the
51:00last six months, Trump is starting to realize that he doesn't have the leverage over China.
51:05China. And that's why he's behaving the way he is with pushing in the Western Hemisphere,
51:11saying this is our hemisphere, by trying to seize oil from Venezuela and Iran, because it's the last
51:19gasp of a crumbling empire that wants to show the world and a world order that America is still here.
51:27But the problem is America no longer has the leverage over China. The problem is that Scotty
51:35Besson and Marco Rubio are ignorant and they don't understand that China holds all the cards.
51:43Now, let's just on a side note, in today's interconnected world, where China's economy
51:48economy is the world's second largest. No Fortune 500 board would ever appoint a global CEO or a head
51:57of international operations if he had never been to China. And that's what's happened with the United
52:03States. Marco Rubio, our Secretary of State, has never been to China. He's underqualified, he's ignorant,
52:12and what makes things worse is he's arrogant. He thinks America has the leverage over China,
52:18but America doesn't because China dominates rare earths and also the refining of all commodities.
52:25A lot of American critics of China and Western European critics of China say that China's investment
52:31into Africa or into Latin America as part of the One Belt, One Road initiative is basically debt trap
52:39diplomacy. They sit there and say that China is investing into Kenya or Zimbabwe at your serious
52:46interest rates, and they're basically stealing all of the assets from these countries. But I travel all
52:52around the world. I've been all over Africa, all over Southeast Asia, and when I meet with
52:59officials, when I meet with wealthy people, and even when I meet with the common man, they say that they
53:05welcome Chinese investment into Africa because it helps create jobs, it helps create economic growth,
53:12and importantly, the Chinese are not as involved in creating vassal states as the Americans and the
53:21Europeans are. So I interviewed one man from Somalia, and I asked him, what do you think of the Americans?
53:27He said that the Americans, by taking out Somalia's former leader 20, 30 years ago,
53:33caused decades of economic stagnation. He said that he welcomes Chinese investment into Somalia because
53:40they create jobs. They invest in Somalia. They don't try to create a vassal state. So I think the
53:49criticisms from the West is a joke. You know, it's not true. When I interview Africans on the ground,
53:56when I interview Southeast Asians on the ground, it's very clear that they welcome Chinese money. And that's
54:01why China is the largest trade partner of about 130 nations in the world. So my fellow Americans are
54:07being propagandized by the New York Times, by the Wall Street Journal, by officials in DC that Chinese
54:14money is not welcome. Now, there are, of course, concerns in Africa. Sometimes they say that the
54:19Chinese don't hire enough local workers, and they would like to have more local Africans hired by the
54:26Chinese companies. They also say that they don't 100% trust the Chinese. One person in Botswana told
54:33me this recently. But he did say that he trusts the Chinese more than he trusts the Western Europeans,
54:39and especially more than he trusts the Americans. So you look at it, over the last 50 years,
54:47you know, America has had a rules-based order, with America and its vassals at the top.
54:52Everyone else had to scurry about and weren't given an equal say. I don't want to lie and exaggerate,
55:00but it's very clear under a Chinese world-led order, or maybe a multi-polar order where China
55:07has more significant say, that these smaller countries will have more of a voice, will have
55:13more of a say in global international affairs, which is only right. I mean, you look at it,
55:19the populations of America and Western Europe are fairly tiny when you factor in the global south,
55:25or I prefer to call it the global majority. And that's what we're seeing in this Iran war, okay?
55:33You're seeing that the whole world is suffering right now because of one man, Donald Trump, and his
55:40actions to try to take out Iran under trumped-up, made-up reasons. There was no real good reason that
55:48the
55:49United States had to launch a war, and again, that's using Trump's own word of war against Iran.
55:54And that's causing all kinds of problems throughout the global majority. I was just in Thailand last
56:00week, and they're facing gas shortages at the pumps. It can be difficult to get a taxi at night in
56:06Thailand.
56:07A lot of politicians in Europe have said that we should work from home because there are gas shortages.
56:14So we have a situation right now where Trump is behaving in a way that's damaging the rules-based world
56:23order, that's damaging American prestige and standing, and giving more power to China because it wants to
56:32take care of the global majority more than the United States was. I don't even think under Trump
56:38that Trump cares about what's happening to the United States right now, frankly. I think he cares
56:43what's happening to his cronies and to his own family and whether or not they are able to profit
56:49from all of the disorder and chaos that is plaguing the world today.
56:59And this was another episode of China Now, a show that opens a window to the present and
57:04future of the Asian giant. Hope you enjoy it and see you next time.
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