- 6 hours ago
Clash Of The Superpowers Ameri Episode 1 Engsub
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:04Xi Jinping and Donald Trump the leaders of the world's most powerful countries are locked in a
00:11high-stakes battle for global power and influence it's a fight that's threatened to explode since
00:19Trump first took office tore up the diplomatic rule book and smashed the consensus on free trade
00:26we lose almost 500 billion dollars a year with China and we want to know what's wrong with us
00:34we are about to help President Trump affect the biggest shift in U.S. foreign policy since the
00:40end of the Cold War now with both sides staking their claims on different parts of the world
00:46this is the story of how these two superpowers have become tangled in a struggle for economic
00:51supremacy with repercussions everywhere we have to realize there's this crisis and we have to take
00:58action to change the alternative is total defeat we'll hear from top U.S. officials and Chinese
01:06academics who give the inside track from Beijing when the president's off the handle you don't know
01:14what's going to happen as well as those caught in the middle of this dangerous standoff the message
01:21from the White House was the president of the United States wants you to choose and he wants you to
01:27choose America
01:46a few days before Donald Trump was first sworn in as president Xi Jinping headed to the Swiss Alps
01:54the leader of the world's largest communist country was there to join the business and political
02:00elites at the annual world economic forum this is first time president Xi attended so China want to
02:10make a clear point where we stand on international economic system
02:19Davos is an extraordinary environment it's jammed solid with the world's political leaders bankers financiers
02:29this year in particular was extraordinary because Trump was about to be inaugurated and many of us were quite alarmed
02:42we had never seen a politician like Trump nobody know his quality how he operates
02:50Trump was clearly turning his back on free trade and open markets the traditional American mantras that
02:59had led the free world for for decades and then enrolls president Xi in a magnificent piece of theater
03:08and delivers a speech which says essentially I am the custodian of free trade and open markets
03:40I never thought in my lifetime to see a communist leader actually to defend the free trade
03:46but remember free trade is good for China the other thing is to remind Trump that this is your system
03:54you created to benefit you and also benefit the rest of the world
03:58so you better keep it don't abandon the ship you are the captain
04:06people didn't know whether he was taking the mickey a little bit at first it was such an extraordinary counterintuitive
04:15speech for Xi to be making
04:18follow me work with me to ensure that we don't allow anyone in brackets incoming U.S. President Trump
04:26to trample down this magnificent free trading structure that has made us all so much more prosperous
04:37he saw an opportunity and he took it it was a brilliantly crafted intervention and it completely stole the show
04:46Xi was the toast of Davos
04:50Quite a journey for a man who'd become leader of the Chinese Communist Party
04:55the CCP only four years earlier
05:03he'd take an office promising to build on a booming economy and to reclaim China's centuries-old place as a
05:10leading nation of the world
05:12he called his vision the Chinese dream
05:28The Chinese dream is that China will restore its previous position
05:36It's not China will dominate or try to take over the world
05:43In the West the press call it rise of China which is a total misnomer
05:50Xi make a point saying this is a restoration not rice
05:55Please welcome the next President of the United States Mr. Donald J. Trump
06:02Now Trump was heading to the White House with his own promise to make his country great again
06:09His victory followed a campaign where he put China front and center of his foreign policy
06:15In his own unique style
06:17We can't continue to allow China to rape our country and that's what they're doing
06:24It's the greatest theft in the history of the world
06:30One of the first times I briefed President Trump was during the campaign
06:35I get about four sentences into my briefing my brilliant briefing on China
06:39And then Donald Trump with like a staccato approach starts firing questions at me
06:46What's China's GNP?
06:48What's the trade and balance between the United States and China?
06:51Is there military any good?
06:54And then I realized he cared about the balance of payments
06:59He knew about tariffs
07:01He understood the business aspect of the relationship
07:07For many decades we've made other countries rich
07:11While the wealth strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon
07:19US! US! US! US!
07:22He paid attention to a group of people
07:24What we call our Rust Belt
07:25The former manufacturing power of the United States
07:28He was the only candidate to recognize their legitimate pain
07:31And the only candidate who had a solution
07:33Which is we're going to go and renegotiate all those trade deals with china
07:38Together we will make America great again
07:43Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America
07:56I remember walking into the executive office building one day into the Trump presidency,
08:01and there's a big sign that lists all the meetings that are being held. And one of the titles is
08:07something like, let's talk about greater U.S.-China economic integration. This is a day into the
08:13Donald Trump administration, and he's just won an election with a significant part of his agenda
08:19being to fight off China's economic predation. And people in his bureaucracy, in his building,
08:26are having meetings about how we could do more economically with China.
08:32I was surprised by some of the assumptions that were being presented by longtime diplomats,
08:41longtime intelligence officers, and others. There was a view that really all that Beijing
08:47wanted, at the end of the day, was just to access a large American market and to prosper and thrive
08:53in a U.S.-dominated world order. I thought that those assessments were out of date, to put it mildly.
09:04In the 80s and 90s, the Chinese Communist Party had opened the country to Western markets,
09:10part of what they called socialism with Chinese characteristics.
09:16The country enjoyed unprecedented growth, which was given a huge boost in 2001,
09:22when China was welcomed into the WTO, the World Trade Organization.
09:28It defined China as a developing economy, meaning trade rules were applied more leniently,
09:34while the world's biggest companies continued to flood into the country.
09:39I was there as a reporter for Reuters news agency, all the way from the late 90s until 2005.
09:50It was a heady time. It was hard not to feel optimism that China would continue opening up,
09:59that its marketization would continue, and there was a hope the politics would begin to moderate as well.
10:09But by the time I left, I had this sinking feeling that many of those optimistic assumptions were going to
10:19be dashed.
10:22I think China entered the WTO with a really good deal.
10:27They got the benefits of participating in a global trading system,
10:31in which there were rules and norms,
10:34but it was given a special carve-out where it could pretend that it was a developing country,
10:40which I think is always tough when you're one of the world's largest consumers of Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
10:46It's entirely logical and sort of expected that Beijing would want to maintain that system.
10:56Coming into the White House, Trump's team included hawkish advisors
11:00who wanted to ensure the new president would deliver on his promise to take on China.
11:05But they knew that for all of Trump's tough talk,
11:08he had a reputation to protect as a champion of business.
11:13And he wanted to keep the CEOs on side,
11:16many of whom had moved manufacturing to China.
11:22In the White House, we had the two camps start to develop.
11:25The more globalist establishment camp
11:29and more of the kind of disruptors, populist, nationalist camp.
11:34The biggest fights were about China and trade.
11:37And that's because the reason is we had so many Wall Street guys.
11:41And look, I worked at Goldman Sachs.
11:43We had Goldman Sachs guys in there.
11:45Goldman Sachs and Wall Street is the investor relations partner for the Chinese CCP,
11:51this radical cadre that runs China.
11:55Chief amongst the Wall Street faction was Gary Cohn,
11:59the former president of Goldman Sachs
12:02and Trump's choice as his top economic advisor.
12:05As a market practitioner, I think that we can have a globalized world that works well.
12:14You want to expand your plant?
12:16Or when Mark wants to come in and build a big, massive plant?
12:20Or when Dell wants to come in and do something monstrous and special?
12:27You're going to have your approvals really fast.
12:29Thank you, sir.
12:30The question is, can we both be complementary to each other?
12:33I think the answer is yes.
12:38Whether the Hawks or the globalists would have their upper hand
12:41would be put to the test at Trump's first summit with Xi.
12:46As he got ready, the U.S. president was briefed by his national security advisor.
12:53President Trump is kind of reflexively contrarian.
12:56And because he's reflexively contrarian,
12:58if you advise President Trump and say,
13:01hey, everybody agrees, this is what you should say,
13:04he might just say the opposite to spite everybody.
13:07So what we decided is what we would emphasize with President Trump
13:11is what Xi Jinping wants him to say.
13:13And let President Trump be contrary to Xi Jinping
13:16rather than to his advisors.
13:23What we said to President Trump is how Xi Jinping uses this language that sounds nice
13:28or at least innocuous.
13:30And when the Chinese Communist Party officials say win-win,
13:32what they mean is they win twice.
13:36Xi arrived in America hoping Trump might back down from the aggressive threats of his campaign.
13:43For people in China, basically, we know every election,
13:47there's always a bashing China element somewhere.
13:50A lot of name calling, a lot of blaming.
13:53I think also the advisors that he's using at that time was very hawkish,
13:57like Steve Bannon, Matt Partinger, and all those people.
14:01But then normally when the new administration come into the White House,
14:05it becomes more, you know, pragmatic.
14:09President Xi attached great importance to the personal relationship.
14:14His personality is, he's very easygoing.
14:19He wants to make friends.
14:22And when he recognizes the other side as a friend,
14:25I think that will be very helpful for the bilateral relations.
14:31Trump had chosen to host Xi not at the White House,
14:34but at his Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago.
14:39President Trump, he fancies himself as a great negotiator.
14:43And part of that is separating the relationship
14:45from the tough issues you're negotiating.
14:48Thank you, President. Thank you.
14:50He's in the hospitality business.
14:52He had his granddaughter, was learning Chinese.
14:56I wanted to make you feel and warm.
14:58Sing a Chinese folk song.
15:05This is a great move.
15:07It's very positive.
15:09It's like a family reunion.
15:16One of the biggest parts of Mar-a-Lago
15:19was time set aside for the two heads of state
15:23to be alone one-on-one.
15:26The two spent a vast amount of time together.
15:29And the main message the president was delivering to us
15:33is that, you know, he and Xi were hitting it off.
15:38It seems they like each other.
15:41Yeah, chemistry is good.
15:44We've had a long discussion already.
15:48And so far, I have gotten nothing.
15:51Absolutely nothing.
15:53But we have developed a friendship.
15:55I can see that.
15:56You know, President Trump, he's a New Yorker.
15:59I'm a New Yorker.
16:00And New York men of that certain age,
16:03they tend to say, he's my best friend.
16:04He's a pal of mine.
16:05I don't have much fault with doing.
16:07And they were not really friends.
16:08They've just met each other.
16:09And they probably have business interests together.
16:11But it doesn't mean they're golf buddies.
16:13So when President Trump says, oh, he's my friend,
16:16I think what that meant is that President Trump met him,
16:18he understands how he's going to negotiate with him.
16:20Thank you, everybody.
16:21Thank you very much.
16:28Xi wasn't only relying on his budding relationship with Trump.
16:32He'd long been working to ensure China would be at the center of global trade,
16:37with or without America.
16:41A month after Mar-a-Lago, he played hosts to leaders from around the world
16:45to celebrate his flagship initiative,
16:50Belt and Road.
16:58Harking back to the ancient Silk Road between East and West,
17:03Belt and Road aimed to better link China with the world,
17:06financing huge infrastructure projects.
17:11One of the most ambitious schemes ever conceived.
17:15It spanned continents with over a trillion dollars spent,
17:21showcasing China's ability to deliver world-leading feats of engineering.
17:27Now Xi put on a summit befitting its scale.
17:32The Chinese do know how to put on a show.
17:35The biggest rooms you've ever seen,
17:37vast banqueting tables,
17:39you know, more flowers than they've got in Kew Gardens.
17:42To invite President Xi to the podium.
17:46President Xi decided to make a Belt and Road Summit
17:49to assure the world
17:50if the U.S. is back to the protectionism,
17:54China is still there to help and to work with everybody.
17:59Well, the road is important in the demonstrating
18:02to the American president or American government
18:07that China could have alternative
18:11if Western countries decide to block
18:14or slow down Chinese economic activities.
18:26Cutting a somewhat lonely figure at the summit
18:28was the U.S. representative Matt Pottinger.
18:32One of the things that Beijing does
18:34is to try to create the sense
18:37that the Communist Party's success is inevitable.
18:40So come jump on the bandwagon.
18:45They wanted to assemble as many world leaders as possible
18:48to essentially endorse Belt and Road.
18:54I remember speaking to President Trump
18:56explaining that Belt and Road
18:58was actually a system
19:00designed to diminish the influence of the United States.
19:05It was an extremely opaque system
19:10whereby governments would have to surrender sovereignty
19:14over critical infrastructure
19:16as collateral
19:18in case they weren't able to pay back debts.
19:22And so it was really sort of a form of loan sharking
19:25on a global scale.
19:29Pottinger's line didn't go down well
19:30with the other attendees.
19:33One of them was Kenya's president
19:35whose country had just that month
19:37opened a multi-billion dollar new railway
19:39largely financed by China.
19:44Kenya took a big loan
19:45to build the standard gauge railway
19:48and it was never going to be easy paying it.
19:51But was there a Chinese debt trap?
19:54No.
19:55African countries are caught in a debt trap
19:57but it's not of Chinese making.
19:59The predominant amount of money
20:02owed by African states
20:04is owed to Western governments
20:07and private banks.
20:09The Americans were uncomfortable
20:11with any Chinese initiative
20:12that looked as though
20:14it had a strategic dimension.
20:16And this clearly was a strategic project.
20:18It was about projecting Chinese influence,
20:21securing Chinese supply lines
20:23and securing export routes as well.
20:27The same day that Xi was hosting
20:29his guests in Beijing,
20:32Trump's new trade representative
20:33was being sworn in.
20:38Robert Lighthizer had spent years
20:40accusing China of breaking trade rules.
20:42Thank you all very much for being here.
20:44I'm very grateful for your friendship.
20:46He quickly summoned top officials
20:48to the West Wing.
20:50The senior people were there
20:52and a lot of them were in the direction
20:54of, well, we have to have dialogue,
20:56we have to tell the Chinese what we want,
20:58all these kinds of things.
21:00You know, I said, you know,
21:01I don't agree with any of this.
21:03The Chinese game plan
21:05has been dialogue, dialogue, dialogue,
21:08talk, talk, talk, talk, talk,
21:10and then don't do anything at all.
21:14Lighthizer's strategy
21:14was to tax goods coming to the U.S. from China.
21:19But his plans ripped open divisions
21:21with the Wall Street faction in the White House.
21:25I wanted tariffs on as much as we can
21:28to change the economic relationship
21:30between the United States and China,
21:32to force companies to come back to the United States
21:34or to find other places to manufacture.
21:37But there was an organized group
21:40who's against tariffs.
21:43I thought there was more question
21:45to who we were hurting
21:47and who we were helping
21:48by putting tariffs on.
21:52Lighthizer started to get to the president
21:54and say,
21:55Mr. President, your voters,
21:57the people who trusted you,
22:00expect that this is going to get done.
22:03It's not getting done,
22:04not because you don't want it to get done,
22:06it's not getting done
22:07because people on your team
22:09are deliberately obstructing your order
22:12to bring China to account
22:14for what it's done to the American people
22:16for 30 years.
22:18And the president said,
22:20I'm not going to let people delay anymore.
22:24Thank you, President.
22:25Trump gave Lighthizer the green light
22:28to launch a major investigation
22:29into China's trade practices.
22:31Thank you very much, Ambassador Lighthizer.
22:34Especially claims it was forcing U.S. companies
22:37to give up blueprints
22:38for their most valuable technology.
22:41We're going to be fulfilling
22:42another campaign promise
22:44by taking firm steps
22:45to ensure that we protect
22:47the intellectual property
22:49of American companies
22:50and very importantly,
22:52of American workers.
22:53American companies were desperate
22:55to do business in China.
22:56And the Chinese would say,
22:59you can enter the Chinese market,
23:01but you have to allow us access
23:03to your proprietary technology.
23:05Well, when American companies did that,
23:07very quickly they found
23:09that that technology
23:10belonged to their Chinese partners.
23:12And then they would go flood the market
23:15with these products
23:16at a much cheaper rate,
23:18put American businesses out of business,
23:20and dominate the global supply chains.
23:25The investigation could pave the way
23:27for wide-ranging tariffs on China.
23:32Economists believe
23:33that tariffs are going to raise prices
23:35and lead to inflation.
23:37Even if you bought the idea,
23:40what's the alternative
23:42that we teach our children Chinese
23:44and tell them to prepare
23:45for a life of servitude?
23:48We have to realize
23:49there's this crisis
23:51and we have to take action to change.
23:53And if there's some small cost
23:55associated with it,
23:57the alternative is total defeat.
23:59And that's not an option.
24:05In Beijing,
24:07Xi was showing no sign
24:08of making concessions.
24:12Although China's phenomenal growth
24:14was slowing,
24:15his ambition
24:17remained resolute.
24:28In a three-hour speech
24:30to the annual party congress,
24:33he described 5,000 years
24:35of China's great imperial past
24:38before the century
24:39of humiliation
24:40that started with the opium wars
24:42of the 19th century.
24:46Before the British came
24:48to invade the opium war,
24:51I'm talking about 1820s,
24:5330s,
24:54Chinese economy
24:55is 32.5%
24:57of global GDP.
24:59When communists took over in 1949,
25:02Chinese economy
25:03less than 2%
25:04of global GDP.
25:06That is a free fall,
25:08disaster.
25:09At the time,
25:10Xi Jinping announced
25:11the China dream,
25:12we are about 12% or 15% of GDP,
25:17which means
25:17if you compare with the 1830s,
25:19we still have a lot of room there.
25:25Three weeks later,
25:27Trump arrived in Beijing
25:28for what the Chinese were calling
25:29a state visit plus.
25:33With the threat of tariffs
25:34looming large,
25:35this was a chance for Xi
25:37to win round the U.S. president.
25:41Xi want to make it
25:43as spectacular as possible
25:45for obvious reasons.
25:49Everybody knows
25:50that Trump
25:51liked spectacle.
25:55He likes, well,
25:57being treated like a king,
25:58maybe.
26:02We talked to President Trump
26:04about the images
26:05that Xi Jinping
26:06would try to create.
26:07He would try to make it seem
26:09like the leader
26:10of the free world,
26:11President Trump,
26:12was coming to Beijing
26:13to kowtow,
26:14you know,
26:14to the emperor,
26:16you know,
26:16Xi Jinping.
26:24Picture yourself
26:25as Nero,
26:27the emperor of Rome,
26:29and you want
26:30to impress somebody,
26:31what would you do?
26:33It was everything
26:35you can imagine.
26:39Everything from music
26:41to singing
26:42to dancing.
26:47They really pulled out
26:49all the stops
26:49and
26:52it was impressive.
26:55Perhaps most extraordinary,
26:57Trump was invited
26:58to dine
26:59in the Forbidden City.
27:04Forbidden City
27:05means forbidden.
27:07Historically,
27:08this is a residence
27:09of emperor.
27:12This is an extraordinary
27:15honor.
27:16Chinese are not
27:17even allowed to go.
27:19So it's quite amazing
27:21to treat Trump
27:22that way.
27:23That's something.
27:24We're having a great time.
27:27I don't believe
27:28Putin even
27:29get that treatment.
27:31Earlier that day,
27:33Xi had even given
27:34Trump a personal tour.
27:36But not everyone
27:38was welcome.
27:40As President Trump
27:41was about to be
27:42escorted through
27:43the Forbidden City,
27:45before I understood
27:46what was happening,
27:47I was diverted
27:48before I could get
27:49into the gate.
27:52Matt Ponger is like
27:53the man who knew
27:54too much.
27:55And he really would
27:56make the Chinese
27:57leadership very
27:58uncomfortable.
27:59I mean,
28:00there's a guy
28:00who's fluent in Mandarin
28:01and knew the Chinese
28:03Communist Party
28:03so well.
28:05When we get
28:05to the Forbidden City,
28:07I'm looking around,
28:08where's Matt Ponger?
28:10He's not there.
28:10The one guy
28:11who can actually
28:12speak the language
28:13and know something
28:14about this system
28:15has somehow
28:16been kept out.
28:22The imperial setting
28:23was the perfect spot
28:25for Xi to give
28:26Trump an education
28:27on China's
28:28historic place
28:29in the world.
28:30And I guess
28:31the oldest culture
28:33they say is
28:33Egypt at 8,000.
28:35and the oldest culture
28:38is the oldest culture.
28:39But the culture
28:40has never been
28:41changed.
28:41It's been傳承ed
28:43only in China.
28:44But the Chinese civilization
28:45is between the
28:46Chinese So this
28:47is your
28:47original form, right?
28:49Jeff, that
28:49girl is.
28:50This is
28:50a young one.
28:51Yes.
28:52We are
28:54black hair,
28:55black hair,
28:56black hair,
28:56black hair,
28:58we are the
29:03people who are
29:04down from track she's charm offensive looked to be working as the leaders and their team sat down
29:15in the great hall of the people our meeting last night was absolutely terrific our dinner was beyond
29:26that then trump turned to his team the president after the first two or three statements asked
29:34me to address the um the trade issue i didn't have a script i didn't know for sure that i
29:41would be
29:42called on light heiser is the really the trade war warrior for many many years so chinese know that
29:50his basic argument is familiar but the way he presented is quite uh i would say quite aggressive
29:58from a chinese point of view light heiser couched his presentation around their practices of forcing
30:06the transfer of intellectual property so he just went through many of these practices with such
30:12clarity i think it was arresting to xi jinping uh and and the other officials there i basically made
30:19the argument that we were the victim here it wasn't china and it can't continue and it won't continue
30:26and and i think that was a little befuddling like what's going on here
30:35but the chinese hosts weren't done yet trump had traveled to beijing with dozens of american
30:42business leaders in tow in front of the cameras they signed more than 250 billion dollars worth of deals
30:50with china china china was quite uh generous to really make all those things happen shows that
31:02china is really willing to collaborate with u.s the president and ceo of boeing commercial airplanes and
31:07mr ja baojin that was really a big boost for president trump and he really had a big harvest for
31:13his first
31:14trip to china donald trump wanted to show the american people that during his visit to china he got
31:22something for you know america and this was something really tangible and right in his wheelhouse
31:30now trump had his chance to talk directly to the press
31:34i don't blame china after all who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another
31:47country for the benefit of its citizens i give china great credit
31:55he turns to xi jinping goes for all this i don't blame you i blame us
32:01but in actuality i do blame past administrations for allowing this out of control trade deficit
32:10to take place and to grow it was very trumpian in that it was simultaneously gracious to the host
32:16but also had a sharp edge to it in spite of all the flattery and the rest he was not
32:22going to back
32:23off his demands for a really significant shift in that economic relationship when that shift did not
32:30materialize president trump resorted to a trade war here's what's on the power lunch menu president
32:36trump hitting china with 60 billion dollars worth of tariffs raising fears about a global trade war
32:42in march 2018 lightheiser's report was published it says the economic harm to the us of unfair trade
32:50practices on intellectual property is in the range of 50 billion dollars and so it plans
32:55uh to try to recoup some of that cost with these tariffs trump announced tariffs on chinese exports
33:02particularly those the u.s said use stolen technology
33:08china would respond in kind sparking a tit-for-tat escalation that spiraled over the coming months
33:15if they charge us we charge them the same thing that's the way it's got to be
33:21trump was smashing decades of washington consensus on trade earlier that month gary cone resigned
33:31the only thing the tariff was doing was acting as a consumption tax
33:39to the u.s consumer that bought that good from china
33:45i can remember talking with with business leaders and investors and many folks assuring
33:51me that there's no way these tariffs could stay on more than three or four months
33:56because it would be too harmful to the u.s economy and i can remember telling folks that i think
34:01we're
34:02actually much more in a new normal just because they have a business model that works really well
34:07that the rest of the world should just stay static so that they can benefit from that isn't a realistic
34:15perspective to have and that's tough to hear particularly when you're a powerful company
34:20you've been kind of a master of the universe but that's the reality
34:26trump's team now had to face officials from beijing
34:30the chinese really were taken aback they didn't think that trump would really go ahead with the tariffs
34:38they had a sense for a long time that it was a bluff you know they had signed this 250
34:45billion dollars
34:46worth of deals just back in november you know that was a serious amount of money and they thought you
34:52know they had done the necessary and didn't understand why you know it wasn't working
35:01as america and china braced for what could be a costly trade war she put on a show of strength
35:10within weeks of the tariffs being announced he donned military fatigues to preside over a massive
35:16naval parade the largest of its kind ever conducted by the chinese it took place in the south china sea
35:24a crucial shipping corridor where china was building artificial islands to back up its claims on the
35:30area claims rejected by most countries including the u.s he says he wants a modernized military by 2035
35:41he wants a world-class military by uh by 2049 which means pretty much he wants to displace the united
35:49states from the indo-pacific they want to defend all the waters surrounding china and manage the trade
35:55and everything passing through them this was china interrupting and trying to change international
36:02rules and norms that we felt that we couldn't tolerate the situation was becoming more and more
36:09dangerous as u.s ships and aircraft continued what they called freedom of navigation exercises
36:17as u.s military aircraft power 8 alpha this is chenny's yun's reef china had a sovereignty of the
36:23national islands including yun's reef and it's adjusted water leave immediately and keep far off
36:29so as to avoid enemy standing tensions were high as world leaders arrived in argentina for the annual
36:42g20 summit it would be trump and xi's first meeting since beijing the u.s president had a new national
36:51security advisor i thought this was obviously a significant opportunity to make points about uh things
37:02that concerned us about china's aggressive behavior along its periphery and and talk about the big strategic
37:08issues uh what trump mostly wanted to talk about though was trade
37:15by now the u.s had ramped up tariffs to hit 250 billion dollars worth of chinese goods
37:24trump was threatening to go even higher
37:28but bolton feared the prospect of a trade deal with china might soften trump's resolve
37:37the two leaders met for dinner on the sidelines of the summit
37:42this was the first time i had seen them together it was unnerving to watch xi in a very systematic
37:51thorough way advance what were clearly his well thought out objectives and to watch trump wing it
38:00uh the relationship is very special the relationship that i have with president xi
38:05and uh i think that is going to be a very primary reason why we'll probably end up ending up
38:11getting
38:12something she had come to the meeting with a headline grabbing pitch
38:17if the u.s would hold off further tariffs china would commit to buying u.s goods and services
38:23worth over a trillion dollars chinese site for example walmart and other successful uh retailers how
38:33they're successful because of chinese made in china so that is what the the argument they are making
38:40saying you might end up hurting yourself
38:45i was worried throughout the dinner that we were basically going to agree to things and indeed trump did
38:50make concessions in terms of not putting tariffs in place that he had threatened so that we could
38:56have good trade discussions with china a truce in the trade war was agreed
39:06but just then news came through that had the potential to undermine any goodwill
39:12i hear my phone ringing i look down and and it's my it's my colleague at at the justice department
39:18and i don't normally get calls from the justice department and he informs me that they're going
39:24to exercise an arrest warrant against the chief financial officer of huawei as she goes through
39:30at vancouver airport i immediately think about how this is going to be interpreted as a deliberate snub
39:36and a deliberate affront to the chinese counterparts and how this will throw a wrench into what the
39:44president is trying to achieve and let's get back to the big story this morning weighing on
39:48futures with big implications for the u.s china trade truths and relationship canada has arrested
39:52the cfo of huawei who also happens to be the daughter of the company's founder mong's charges
39:56were part of a sweeping set of criminal charges by the trump administration unveiled yesterday
40:01accusing the company of stealing trade secrets and violating sanctions we all hear news we were
40:08surprised because uh while we're shaking hands on the table and the u.s is kicking us back under the
40:15table
40:18we knew for some time before that meng was coming it was imperative that not leak out john bolton had
40:26been told that mong's arrest was imminent just before the dinner with xi he decided not to inform trump
40:33until it was made public on the flight back to washington i explained what had happened in canada and what
40:42would flow from them he didn't really have much of a reaction to mong's arrest when i briefed him on
40:47it
40:49officially the chinese government isn't directly linking mong's arrest to the trade negotiations just
40:56yet but unofficially in the state media this is being seen as a political decision
41:01so trump had a christmas dinner in the east room for his top white house staff and at one point
41:13out
41:13of nowhere he said by the way why did we arrest mong the the ivanka trump of china i thought
41:21maybe first
41:22i would say you didn't tell me that ivanka was a spy and an agent of our government but i
41:28didn't
41:28uh fortunately for me probably telecom's giant huawei was a shining example of xi's vision for china
41:37to dominate technologies of the future it had become a battleground with the americans who placed
41:44restrictions on the company citing fears china could use its equipment for spying
41:51mong's high-profile arrest only raised the tensions
41:54with relations between the superpowers deteriorating
42:17other countries were finding themselves caught in the crossfire and not just over huawei
42:24the british chancellor got a taste of this when he addressed that year's belton road forum
42:31the speech lauded the scale and ambition of the project and the chinese delivery of it but said
42:39explicitly that if this is going to work it's got to be very careful about the debt burdens that
42:45recipient countries are taking on i was invited to the heads of state lunch which was hosted by
42:53president xi and he just lashed into me saying this was none of my business and um uh the belton
43:02road was
43:02china's project and china would run it in the way that china chose to run it
43:07so it was quite a moment being given a finger-wagging lecture by um president xi
43:16returning to london hammond would find that the fallout wasn't over
43:22so i get a call from the white house i get the deputy national security advisor on the phone
43:29and he says um we'd like to talk to you about your speech we had seen a speech that uh
43:35philip hammond
43:36had just delivered that it appeared to be an endorsement of china's debt trap diplomacy so it was a bit
43:44cheeky but one of my colleagues from the state department printed out hammond's speech on on a
43:50on a poster board with some of the key phrases that looked like they'd been taken straight from
43:56beijing's propaganda highlighted a meeting was set up and somebody came over and arrived in my office in
44:04number 11. he laid them out in my office in downing street uh along the wall so that all the
44:13text of the
44:14speech was there and i was asked by the americans to justify the uh to explain um my thinking behind
44:23the less critical parts of that speak i'd said uh from the outset the uk cannot be in a position
44:33of
44:33having to choose between the world's largest economy and the world's second largest economy
44:38and that was what i told the americans the response i got was that is exactly what the president of
44:46the
44:46united states wants you to do he wants you to choose and he wants you to choose america
44:56trump now ramped up the pressure even more he signed an executive order preparing the ground for a total ban
45:03of Huawei equipment in u.s systems and the americans set to work persuading other countries to follow
45:11suit beginning with their closest ally we had to start with uk because in many ways the uk's
45:21position as sort of a cyber security and telecommunications power gchq
45:26is seen as sort of world class and that was allowing you know everybody else to essentially
45:32point to and say well gchq says it's okay so why are you america making a big deal about this
45:37the position of the british government was very strongly against making any significant changes
45:48to huawei and we met with a lot of resistance philip hammond the chancellor of the exchequer and
45:54others were very strong on that the message from the white house was we want huawei out get it out
46:05and tell these europeans that they've got to toe the line the chinese had made this a totemic issue
46:13that if we cut huawei off um there would be significant trade and other consequences
46:21and so we very much squeezed in the middle as trump arrived for a long promised state visit
46:30the brits hoped to convince the americans that they could keep huawei out of the most sensitive parts
46:36of their network our security experts essentially said we've engineered the systems in a way that
46:43that the americans are overstating the risk we had very deep concerns and plenty of evidence that
46:53there were back doors there were software and hardware vulnerabilities that would make it fairly
46:59easy for data to be siphoned out of those networks they thought they could protect telecommunications in
47:07britain and and we simply didn't agree with that there was this tension between our security experts
47:14ours were clear that we could manage any risk uh from huawei it was never in the core of our
47:20infrastructure only in the uh the periphery um and they didn't agree our main point is is that this is
47:28not a technical discussion this is a policy discussion right we felt that they simply did not want to
47:35re-examine the decision because changing their decision that they had made before would likely
47:42entail retaliation by beijing we explained to trump how our network was configured differently from the
47:50american network that we were very confident that what we had was a robust um system but he was not
47:56listening in fact most of the time when you engaged with the president there was no sense that he was
48:03actually listening to what anybody else was saying he was simply preparing for the next uh sentence
48:09that he was going to say we said to each other that this is a foretaste huawei we're going to
48:16be here
48:16a lot in the future we're going to find plenty of issues where the chinese are squeezing us from
48:22one side and the americans from the other not just the uk but all the middle ranking powers
48:31the brits stood firm on huawei for now
48:35it was some of trump's aides who worried their boss might not stick to his guns
48:42i felt that it was important to impress on trump that if we were going to take strong measures
48:48against huawei this was not something to give away later this this had to be the beginning of a
48:53a strong and consistent policy because to trump everything is negotiable everything is a bargaining
49:01chip while trump was in the uk in hong kong thousands joined a vigil to mark 30 years
49:11since china's deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in beijing's tiananmen square
49:18the vigil took place in the midst of a growing wave of protests against a new law that would make
49:24extradition to mainland china easier normally every fifth anniversary of tiananmen the white house would
49:32put out a statement on behalf of the president and i had given trump a draft statement that would
49:39commemorate the 30th anniversary and trump said i'm not going to put it out and i said but we always
49:45put
49:45it out every five years and if you don't put it out it will look like we're not concerned about
49:50what
49:51happened to tiananmen or what it represents for the future of china and and hong kong and he said i
49:56don't care trump sees international relations through the prism of his personal relations
50:03he thought she would take offense if we put out a statement by the president on tiananmen and he wasn't
50:09going to do it within weeks as the protests in hong kong grew the authorities responded with brutal force
50:25it was against this backdrop that trump would next meet xi at that year's g20 summit
50:37the u.s president was facing further calls to confront him about hong kong and china's wider human
50:43rights record including the treatment of uighur muslims in xinjiang as he landed he took a call from the
50:51speaker of the house he said well since you're at the g20 you're in asia isn't it remarkable what's
50:59happening in hong kong millions of people are in the streets demonstrating for democracy
51:07i'm sure g20 won't say anything about that because she is there but i think it would be great if
51:15you
51:15could say something to him that the house and the senate democrats and republicans have voted in favor of
51:24the uighurs there's always a summit dinner at these g20 summits and typically it's just the leader of
51:33each country and their spouse if they're there one of my staff talked to the u.s interpreter who was
51:41with trump who reported that he had a conversation with xi jinping and talked about the uighurs and
51:48g defended against charges that these are essentially concentration camps and he said the uighurs
51:55appreciated it they liked it was a good thing to do and trump basically said well then go ahead and
52:00do it
52:03next day he calls me back and he said i mentioned muslims to president xi and he said they like
52:11being in
52:12those labor camps china's record on human rights was never going to be top of trump's agenda
52:24trade negotiations had ground to a halt and election year was fast approaching
52:30a trade deal with china could be a vote winner in the manufacturing and agricultural heartlands of america
52:38you know we've had a excellent relationship but we want to do something that will even it up with
52:46respect to trade i think it's something that's actually very easy to do trump uh basically said
52:52to g look i want to win this election and i need the farmers vote and you can help me
52:56out on that
52:58and uh indeed the the trade negotiation then turned into how many tons of soybeans are they going to
53:05buy next year at that point the trade is mostly focus on chinese buying things okay on the massive scale
53:23uh
53:30xi jinping had great skill in flattering trump and trump responded as he as he often did with flattery of
53:38his
53:38own uh so uh he he took to calling xi king and uh and in osaka it got even worse
53:47he he told him at one
53:49point you're you're the greatest leader in contemporary chinese history and at 30 seconds later he said you're
53:54the greatest leader in all of chinese history so we waited to see how xi would respond to trump
54:03but he didn't call him the greatest leader in all american history just pocketed it and and the
54:08conversation went on
54:19at home she appeared more powerful than ever later that year he took center stage as the chinese
54:27communist party celebrated 70 years of rule in china a statement of power in the face of the hong kong
54:45protests
54:46unlike trump she didn't have to worry about elections
55:05in fact china had abolished term limits meaning he could now remain president for life
55:14and when it came to negotiating with trump the chinese were increasingly confident that by playing
55:20the long game they would ultimately win out china understood trump's way of operating as a professional
55:30wrestler start opening sabo it's always outrageous frightening if you chicken out then he will push
55:41even more if you stand for if you know you have a capacity to stand up he will come down
55:49while she was parading his military might his negotiators were putting the final touches to a trade
55:56deal with trump it was optimistically named the phase one agreement trump would sign it with china's vice
56:04premier to much fanfare the u.s agreed to ease tariffs on china in return china pledged to buy
56:13hundreds of billions of dollars of u.s goods but trump didn't get the major concessions on china's trade
56:20practices he talked about on coming to office it's a relief from chinese side because we had a very we
56:28have a tension you know and january 2020 it's less than one year ahead of the general election we believe
56:36we would have a relatively stable bilateral relations in that year and if president trump won the
56:42election pay would pave the way for the second term it's important to remind yourself that it's not
56:51possible to have an agreement between the united states and china that's going to resolve the problem
56:59of a marxist-lenonist country that wants to be the number one country in the world it's like you can't
57:05imagine an agreement between the united states or the west and soviet union that would have resolved
57:11the fact that they want to take over the world and we don't want them to right today we take
57:17a momentous
57:18step one that has never been taken before with china but what these agreements can do is stop movement
57:24towards a hot war which would be a catastrophe nobody's ever seen anything like it this is the biggest deal
57:30there is anywhere in the world by far trump had his deal but as he talked it up the world
57:39was about to
57:40be hit by a catastrophe that few saw coming one that would bring the us and china closer than ever
57:46to a
57:47new cold war china plague that's where it comes from they say please don't mention china i said why
57:55that's where it comes from i remember cousin trump telling me that if he did a hundred trade deals
58:02with china it still wouldn't make up for the losses that covet had inflicted on the united states
58:10in the next episode as a global pandemic rocks the u.s china relationship the race for technological
58:18supremacy ramps up and the stakes are raised as one of america's leading figures crosses a chinese red line
58:29you have to understand whether it's going to tangerine square or going to taiwan you cannot let
58:36somebody else decide where you're going this is the closest moment of a military encounter
58:45my understanding is that 20 the chinese did not sleep at that night she's going to tell us where we
58:51can go i don't think so and you can watch the next episode right now on bbc iplayer also there
59:03ai
59:03confidential with hannah fry extraordinary human stories from the high-tech frontier watch now inside a
59:11publishing scandal with a new podcast on sounds secrets of the salt path listen now
Comments