China Now 27-09: Deep dive into China´s present and future

Name: China Now 27-09: Deep dive into China´s present and future
Uploaded: 2026-09-27T16:36:23+00:00
Duration: 52 min 16 s
Channel: teleSUR English

00:11Hello, Telesur English presents a new episode of China Now, a Wave Media's production that showcases the culture, technology and

00:17politics of the Asian giant.

00:19In this first segment, China Currents takes a deep dive into the week's top stories, from the prospect of an

00:26outer space arms race and the opening of China's own Panama Canal to a deep-seek engineer's farewell letter.

00:33So, let's see.

00:50Hello and welcome to China Currents. This week, the prospect of an outer space arms race, the opening of China's

00:56very own Panama Canal, a deep-seek engineer's farewell letter, and a British AI actress's Cantonese. Let's get into it.

01:04The United States has just publicly acknowledged that it has weapons in orbit, and Washington is eager to let rivals

01:11know.

01:11On September 14th, Air Force Secretary Troy Mink said the U.S. Space Force now has on-orbit space control

01:17weapons, capable of defending American forces against hostile action.

01:21The wording was very deliberate, but he refused to speak on details. As of now, there is no information on

01:27what type of weapons they are, nor how many are deployed.

01:29However, considering that the Space Force, in their own words, have described space control as disrupting, degrading, and even destroying

01:38an adversary's capabilities for both defensive and offensive purposes,

01:42it's clear enough that these U.S. space weapons are intended for more than just protecting its satellites, but for

01:48active interference and potential destruction of other nations' capabilities in space.

01:53This has put countries on high alert. With the U.S. claiming space defense capabilities, the pressure is now on

01:59for other nations to respond in kind, which brings us dangerously close to the prospect of a space arms race.

02:05China's response has been to categorically reject such prospects, and for years now, it has been calling for binding international

02:13agreements to prevent a space arms race from happening.

02:16The day after Meng's remarks, Beijing released a statement saying that it opposes the weaponization and militarization of outer space

02:23and urged Washington to stop expanding its military buildup.

02:28On that very same day in Vienna, at the United Nations headquarters, China formally handed over lunar soil samples from

02:34the far side of the moon, the first of its kind in human history collected by the recent Chang'e

02:386 expedition.

02:39The sample was presented to the U.N. as a deliberate symbolic gesture to share the fruits of deep space

02:45exploration with the whole world to show support for multilateralism, peaceful use of outer space, and better global space governance.

02:52The contrast is sharp here. One nation launches weapons in orbit, while the other shares a fragment and a vision

02:59of what international space cooperation could achieve.

03:01Moving on to southern China, we're celebrating the opening of a brand new canal that connects Hangzhou and Guangxi to

03:08the Beibu Gulf more than 130 kilometers away.

03:10Called the Pinglu Canal, it officially started operations on September 16th after four years of construction and $11 billion in

03:18investments.

03:19It is the first river-to-sea canal since 1949, coordinated by the Chinese state, which allows a barge to

03:25travel from an inland river to the open sea without having to go around the coast.

03:29Because southwest China is landlocked, goods from Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan have had to travel all the way east to

03:36the ports of Guangdong before it could be exported.

03:39The new route cuts that journey by more than 560 kilometers, and as a result, Beijing expects shipping costs to

03:46fall sharply.

03:47Several immense engineering challenges had to be overcome in order to complete the canal.

03:52For one, the water levels between some sections have more than a 65-meter difference, about the height of a

03:5720-story building.

03:59So navigation hubs had to be built to lift and lower the vessels along parts of the canal.

04:03And while most of the canal was made by widening and deepening rivers that already existed, there was one stretch

04:09which had to be cut straight through dry land and mountains.

04:12Cheng Yao Fei, the chairman of the construction company, stated that this was a massive challenge because there was no

04:17established model already made precedent to follow.

04:20The canal can take ships of up to 5,000 tons, which equate to bulk cargo ships, rather than the

04:26giants that cross the Pacific.

04:28But with ASEAN as China's largest trading partner, with more trade between the two each year,

04:34container traffic through Beibu Gulfport at the southern end of the canal has grown more than four-fold in under

04:39a decade.

04:40Liu Xinying, the vice chairwoman of the Guangxi regional government, said the canal is now open, linking China with ASEAN,

04:47and posed to reshape the economic geography between the two regions.

04:50Our next story is about AI.

04:52A Chinese engineer named Liu Seung-yu published a 3,000-word essay on his personal WeChat account with the

04:58title,

04:59I had to bury my talent in yesterday.

05:01He was in Peking University's Turing class, the university's elite computer program, and captained his supercomputing team.

05:09He then joined DeepSeq in April 2025.

05:12Days before writing the essay, he had finished the main attention operator for DeepSeq's V4.1 model, which is to

05:18say, one of the pieces of code that makes the model run.

05:21In his essay, he wrote that within six months to a year, AI will likely produce operators as good as

05:27his or better.

05:28The specific numbers he gave, as quoted in Chinese tech media, is that AI can think at 300 tokens a

05:33second, write a line of command in half a second, and write a piece of code in 20 seconds.

05:38He cannot.

05:40He also worked out the logic of his own position.

05:42The better he optimizes the code, the faster the model runs, and the sooner that the model can replace him.

05:49But he was compelled to keep optimizing anyway, because if he slowed down or sabotaged it, other companies' model would

05:55keep improving and replace him regardless.

05:57But he wasn't afraid of losing his job.

05:59He predicted that soon, instead of writing code line by line, his job will have him direct a group of

06:05AI agents.

06:06He caused it becoming a mecha pilot with more gears in his hands and less rhythm in his heart.

06:11He compared it to Weaver's meeting the knitting machine.

06:13The craft survives, but the pleasure does not.

06:16He also explained why he will stay where he is.

06:18He believes the most advanced AI should be open and cheap, available to everyone rather than controlled by a few

06:24companies.

06:26Building fast, cheap, capable, open-source AI, he wrote, might pull the world back a little from the Cyberpunk 2077

06:33end of the future.

06:35His essay received attention outside China, with Business Insider describing it as a rare snapshot of life inside China's frontier

06:42AI labs.

06:43And when one reader suggested the essay had been written by AI, his reply was four characters.

06:48This one, I wrote by hand.

06:50He added a note the next day, saying that the essay was not about being afraid of losing his job,

06:54but a way of saying goodbye to the years when he wrote operators by hand.

06:58He predicted that writing code the way people do now will eventually stop being like a job and become a

07:03sport, like hunting with a spear.

07:05His words highlight the strange moment we're in with AI.

07:08Some of the people building these systems are now asking whether we should slow down.

07:13But for engineers like Liu Xiong-nyu, slowing down may already feel impossible.

07:17But let's move on to a more lighthearted story on AI.

07:21Tilly Norwood is not a person.

07:23She is a generative AI character built by a British company called Particle 6.

07:28And on Friday, she went on Piers Morgan to promote her first film, Misaligned.

07:32The interview was awkward, to say the least.

07:35Tom Conti, a British actor, asked Norwood whether the other actors in the film were real or computer generated.

07:40She replied with a ready-made remark about the movie being a hybrid production without answering the question.

07:45So when Conti pressed again, pointing out that she didn't understand the question, Norwood paused, started to answer, and then

07:52switched to Cantonese.

08:05Morgan had to cut in to ask why she was suddenly speaking Chinese, to which Norwood apologized, called it a

08:11small technical problem, and said that her thinking sometimes gets a bit muddled.

08:14After the interview, her company gave a different explanation.

08:18A publicist for Particle 6, Michelle Waldron, told Forbes it was not a malfunction at all.

08:23It was, she said, a demonstration of what Norwood can do, and that they would like more people to talk

08:28to her in other languages.

08:30Norwood had thought she heard a Cantonese word, which caused the switch.

08:34The company also added that the version of Norwood that gives interviews is not the same as the one that

08:39acts in films, and the two versions run on different tools.

08:42So who's to say whether that slip-up was a bug or a feature?

08:47Either way, Tilly Norwood's film comes out soon, and her next interview may be more careful, or entirely indecipherable.

08:56And those are our four stories for this week.

08:58Thanks for watching, Channel Currents.

08:59We'll see you next time.

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14:27Welcome back to China Now.

14:28In this second segment, Thinker's Forums welcomes Fabrizio Maronta, the head of international relations at Lyme's Italy, to address global

14:37warming and also climate change.

14:39Additionally, top picks will analyse how Japan is systematically reverting to militarism while undermining its commitments to pacifism.

14:48So, let's have a look.

15:03I have to say that this heat wave this summer, 26, is pretty serious.

15:09Probably is the most serious one that we had in the last decade, if not even more.

15:17It's not just a matter of how high the temperatures are, but also how persistent and durable the heat wave

15:25is.

15:25So, it very much depends on where you live, of course.

15:31On average, there are two kinds of heat waves that can, let's say, interest or hit Europe.

15:38One kind of heat wave is air coming from Africa, crossing the Mediterranean and impacting first the south of Europe

15:47and then the north.

15:49And in this case, the Alps, the mountainous chain that divides Italy from the rest of the continent usually acts

15:58as a sort of barrier that confines the air in the Mediterranean region.

16:03So, the Alps and the Pyrenees, the mountains dividing the Iberian Peninsula, Spain and Portugal from France, act as kind

16:12of barriers.

16:13And so, in this case, the north of Europe is kind of spared a little bit.

16:17This kind of heat wave, on the other hand, it's air coming always from Africa, but kind of circumventing Europe,

16:27traveling on the Atlantic Ocean, and then impacting Europe from the northwest.

16:35So, in this case, the areas that are more affected are central, northern European ones, so Germany, France, but also

16:47even Great Britain, and I would say also the north of Spain and Italy.

16:54So, we're in this second kind of heat wave, it means that up until now, the southern part of Europe,

17:03the more Mediterranean ones, have been kind of spared a little bit.

17:07But as of late, in the last, I would say, week or so, the heat has been increasing also in

17:12the southern part of Europe.

17:14So, we're in the very last phase, the heat has been spreading more evenly across the continent.

17:24Of course, if you live in a big city, you will be more affected because you have a kind of

17:30a heat dome, which doesn't have to do only with the temperature of the air itself,

17:38but also on, it has to do also with what the concrete, the asphalt, and everything that surrounds you gives

17:46back, especially in the night, in terms of heat that all these materials have been accumulating during the day.

17:55And this is a condition, I think, that everyone can understand all over the world, because I think that all

18:01the urban population experiences the same.

18:03Well, it's pretty tough.

18:06You have to consider that in Europe, all across the European Union at least, more or less 30-35%

18:15of houses have air conditioning.

18:18All the rest don't, because especially in the central northern part of Europe, these kind of conditions are pretty new.

18:27It means that paradoxically, even if the parts of Europe that usually experience more heat are the southern ones, like

18:38the one I'm talking from, from Rome and Italy.

18:40As a matter of fact, the ones that are suffering the most right now are people in the northern part

18:48of Europe that usually are spared by this kind of heat.

18:54And once they have it, like now, they're not equipped properly to withstand it.

19:00So this is more or less a situation.

19:02We have an excess rate of people who have lost their lives that have been estimated between 80,000 and

19:16100,000.

19:17So this is the toll that in the last couple of months has been put on the European population, talking

19:26about the population of the European Union.

19:29So we had an excess mortality rate of about 80,000, 100,000 compared to the average of this period.

19:43So it is pretty intense.

19:46All across Europe, some countries more, some countries less.

19:49We have, on average, a quite elderly population, old population.

19:55So the first is the impact on the, of course, on the health, public health systems.

20:04We have quite developed, you know, public health welfare systems, on average, all across Europe.

20:13So most of the impact is felt by public hospitals.

20:17And most of the people that are attended by the ERs and the facilities that are supposed to withstand the

20:31first impact of such public health emergencies are public.

20:37And, of course, most of the people attending those right now are elderly people.

20:44So, of course, there is an impact on the well-being of the most fragile part of the population that

20:53usually is the one which is older.

20:57Then, of course, there is a matter of sustainability for the public health systems, both in terms of capacity to

21:05attend people, but also in terms of money, of course, because it's attended people costs money.

21:10And our public finances in many European countries are already under strain, both for structural reasons and also for reasons

21:22that have to do with the impact of the energy crisis in the Gulf, the Ukraine war, and so on.

21:29Then, of course, there is a matter of impact on GDP, because you have to consider that many activities that

21:38are carried out in the ETH can be construction, can be agriculture, especially if it comes to hand-pick, you

21:48know, tomatoes or whatever you want, have to be reduced and are usually reduced by public ordinances.

21:57In order to spare those workers in order to spare those workers, you know, the hottest parts of the day.

22:08And then, of course, there is water, especially the north of Italy, in this case, I'm talking about Italy, the

22:15big rivers in the north, and you have to consider that the north is a very industrial but also agriculturally

22:22intense part of the country with lots of agricultural areas,

22:27because in the north of Italy, because in the north of Italy, you have the biggest plateau flat of the

22:34country, which is heavily industrialized, but also heavily used for agriculture.

22:39And there is a very big shortage of water because the rivers running dry, this is something that they suspect

22:47in France as well, by the way.

22:49And of course, there is a matter of levels of rivers and artificial, you know, dams and lakes that is

22:58where the water is taken from for agricultural purposes, but also, I would say, for industrial purposes to carry out

23:07industrial processes.

23:08So, there are a lot of things that are intermingling.

23:13I would say that energy right now is not a concern, at least not as much as it used to

23:21be in other instances, in other different summers and heat waves,

23:29because impact of all the geopolitical crises that we have been withstanding in the last years, talking about Ukraine, war,

23:42and then the wars in the Middle East and so on,

23:46have had an impact on our industrial system, talking about, in this case, specifically Italy, but the very same thing

23:55could be, say, for Germany, for example.

23:58And this has reduced a little bit, the request by the industrial sector of energy.

24:04So, this means that up until now, we haven't had an energy, let's say, crisis or an energy issue.

24:11But of course, there is an issue in terms of how much we pay for energy, because the lack of

24:19gas coming from the Strait of Hormuz, especially from Qatar,

24:23and we, in Italy, are heavy importers of that gas, has meant that our energy bill has gone up.

24:30And so, right now, offices, industrial premises, and private homes are using a lot of air conditioning.

24:39And this means that the impact on the energy bill will be quite high, because we don't have an issue

24:45of energy scarcity,

24:47but we have an issue, of course, of energy price.

24:53They are taking several measures.

24:57Some of them have already mentioned that they are trying to restrict those activities that are most impacted in terms

25:07of health of the workers who perform them.

25:10So, in those sectors, like agriculture, like some industrial productions that are carried out in places where you can't have

25:21air conditioning.

25:22It can be, for example, steel mills or this kind of things.

25:25And, of course, agricultural construction and this kind of things.

25:29Then they are, they have been subsidizing energy because of the, especially the wars that are happening in the Middle

25:39East and the impact on the energy bill.

25:41But they are subsidizing energy also right now to try to cushion a little bit of impact on the energy

25:51bills of businesses and private citizens like of the increased use of energy because of the massive use of air

26:04conditioning.

26:04They are also trying to basically make sure that the energy grid is not overwhelmed.

26:20And so, sometimes they manage the distribution, the voltage, the distribution of energy among several parts of the grid in

26:29order not to overwhelm the grids as well.

26:31But, apart from that, I have to say that there is not that much that governments can do.

26:44Sometimes, and this is not just government, not national governments, but it's more a matter of municipalities.

26:50They, for example, open up like, you know, shelters, so to say, so places like can be gyms or this

27:00kind of things that are provided with air conditions in order to have, for example, orderly people who don't have

27:08air condition at their houses, you know, spending the hottest part of days there.

27:13But, I mean, apart from that, there's not that much taken, because this is a matter of adequating, gearing up

27:20a whole infrastructure, both public and private, you know, to deal with this.

27:26And this is not something that can be done by fiat, you know, by government fiat in just, you know,

27:32a month or so.

27:33So, these are, you know, all measures that aim to cushion the impacts a little bit, but we cannot talk

27:44about structural measures, because those take, you know, time, money, planning, and efforts that have to be, you know, distributed

27:55on a longer time span.

27:57There are two ways to approach the politicizing or politicization of energy and climate issues.

28:08One is the debate between, you know, those who say that climate change doesn't exist, or if it exists, it's

28:17not man-made.

28:18And those who say, no, it's not only evident, self-evident, but it's definitely man-made because science tells us

28:26so.

28:26This is a fault line, which is still there, but I would say it's not as prominent as it used

28:36to be, because either you believe in climate change or not, either you think it's man-made or not.

28:43I mean, the consequence of this extreme weather, it's on all of us.

28:49So, you can argue what the causes are, but it's a fact.

28:54Another aspect of the political, let's say, aspect of this issue is whether this climate change, or by the way,

29:04this extreme manifestation of weather,

29:06something that should be a matter of government policies, or should be left as much as possible to the private

29:22reaction and private, let's say, remedy.

29:26From this point of view, I would argue that the debate in Europe in general, or at least in Italy

29:34in particular,

29:35is more and more geared, probably because of the way our systems work towards the first option, let's say, the

29:47governments in general should take at least the lead

29:52to mobilize, you know, to mobilize, you know, public-private solutions to this.

30:00And this brings with it all the issues of what should be done in terms of infrastructure adequacy to threats,

30:12or by the way, the challenges that this situation poses.

30:17I have to say that, from this point of view, I think that the debate has shifted.

30:24Before, it was just, in Europe, a matter of ecology.

30:29We have to do something for ecological reasons.

30:33We have to do something because, so the governments should do something,

30:36and should help the private sector to adapt, to mitigate, and so on,

30:41because otherwise our environment becomes unlivable,

30:47and so we put ourselves in an impossible situation for ourselves and for the generation to come.

30:54Now, the ecological aspect is still there, but it's accompanied,

30:59and sometimes I would say it's even outshadowed by a different kind of considerations.

31:07They have to do with the industrial and technological prowess and capacity and ability to withstand the impact of climate

31:19and to adapt.

31:20So, the debate has shifted from just an emergency ecological debate to,

31:30okay, what do we need in terms of industrial capacity in order to deal with it?

31:37This is an evolution of the debate that is strictly linked to what has happened in the world in the

31:45last years.

31:46Because Ukraine, Ukrainian war first, and then the Gulf crisis that started with the Hamas attack to Israel on October

31:577, 2023,

31:59and all the wars and the stabilizing situation that characterized the Middle East, the broader Middle East up until then.

32:07But also the tensions between the United States and China or between some European countries and some other Asian countries,

32:20and even, of course, between the United States and the European countries,

32:25all this has brought the European public opinions, but also and mainly the European establishment,

32:32to confront the climate issue, not just in terms of, I mean, ecological emergency,

32:42but also in terms of industrial and technological capacity to produce the solutions that are needed for that.

32:54From this point of view, we could say that the debate has become politicized in the most, I would say,

33:01profound sense.

33:02It's politicized not just between those who say climate change is there and that climate change is not there.

33:09That is the first step of politicization.

33:11Now it's politicized in terms of strategy, strategic terms.

33:15I mean, who should we rely on to give us all the technologies we need and all the industrial value

33:28chains that we need to produce solutions to this problem?

33:34Should we rely on the United States?

33:36Should we rely on Asia, on China?

33:38Should we rely mostly on ourselves?

33:40In this case, we, let's say, decouple from the United States and from China, you know, because we cannot trust

33:48the Trump administration.

33:50But on the other hand, we don't want to be too dependent on other countries that are even not the

33:56United States for this kind of things.

33:58And, of course, many of these technologies are technologies that can be used to, you know, apply to other things

34:05as well, to automation, for example, of industrial processes.

34:08We're talking about artificial intelligence to manage, you know, energy grids.

34:13We're talking about solar panels or wind turbines that can be used for, you know, to power many different things.

34:22Of course, what do we want our car sector future to be?

34:28Should it be electric?

34:29Okay, in this case, we need to, you know, to upgrade our energy grids.

34:34But all this must be done with raw materials and with technology.

34:40Do we have, do we produce enough or not?

34:43This is the, let's say, ultimate and last stage of the politicization process of this debate.

34:51Which is not just between pro or cons as far as the causes, effects of climate change, but is also

35:02and very much about industrial policy, industrial strategy and international alliances in order to deal with that.

35:12So it's more, it's become more geopolitical than it used to be.

35:16On the other hand, the sense of urgency and of, you know, genuine preoccupation for our future and the future

35:24of our future generations is to make this issue, this climate issue, an issue of industrial policy and in general

35:37of economic policy.

35:39I mean, the connection between the two and the element that makes it possible to also to call the public

35:50opinions to make sacrifices, also economic sacrifices, in order to address this issue,

35:56is to regain or at least to develop those industrial and technological capacities that at the same time give you

36:07the possibility to address mitigations and in general adaptation to the climate challenges better than now.

36:18And at the same time, create or, by the way, develop more than they are now economic sectors that can

36:27be viable for the economic future of our societies.

36:30Of course, this seems, you know, the silver bullet, but it isn't, because this means that you have to revise

36:39and you have to change also your schemes of international trade, interdependencies, international value chains.

36:50And so the risk I see in this is that this, you know, is a harbinger for, if not economic

36:59wars, at least economic, you know, tensions between our countries and other parts of the world.

37:07And this is something that we should avoid, but I have to say it's not easy at all.

37:12The elephant in the room, as far as this topic is concerned, is Asia in general, China in particular, whose

37:23model is regarded both with caution, but also with genuine, let's say, appreciation and awe.

37:35It is true that China had as well, and this is a comparison, which is often made here in Europe,

37:43as well as Europe or Italy in particular, after the Second World War, China started from scratch.

37:50So to say, it means that it took the chance to modernize all its infrastructure and all its ways to

38:01produce and to allocate, you know, resources and products of its industrial, growing industrial prowess from a situation of 40

38:12years ago, 50 years ago of, you know, underdevelopment compared to other parts of the world.

38:19And this is exactly the situation that we found ourselves in after the Second World War and the destruction brought

38:25by the World War, which in some countries like Italy were adding also to a context of previous underdevelopment, especially

38:36of the central southern part of the country.

38:38But given that, I mean, given the fact that China, let's say, had this, let me call it, advantage of

38:45not having to, you know, change a model and an infrastructure that was already developed, but could afford to, you

38:57know, build from scratch all the infrastructure that it needed.

39:00The point is that China could have chosen different ways and what is really, you know, a subject of studying

39:10and of, you know, consideration here in Europe is that China didn't just invest poor money in building things,

39:19but thought what to build and developed a strategy that up to now has, apart from, of course, some, you

39:29know, let's say incidents, like, for example, the housing bubble.

39:32But in terms of, especially energy infrastructure and in terms of mainly controlling the, all the value chains that are

39:43needed to the energy transition, like rare earths and minerals, solar,

39:50or the production of solar panels, or the production of solar panels, permanent magnets, and, of course, the hardware, the

39:59electronics and the software that goes into all these things and that goes into the electric vehicles and so on,

40:07China didn't arrive there by chance.

40:10Where it's, it, it, it was able to look ahead and it was able to choose a path, which has

40:19revealed, you know, the right one.

40:22That's a lesson.

40:23I have to say that the European countries are trying to, if not to emulate already, at least to study

40:34and to try to learn from.

40:36As European economies in general, a problem that can be made easier by right, industrial and political choices, but cannot

40:50be eliminated at once, which is the fact that we are developed countries in terms of economic standard and living

41:02standard with very few resources.

41:05Natural resources, I mean, and this is something that cannot be, you know, circumvented, cannot be worked around completely.

41:17You can develop technologies that, you know, use more, I don't know, for example, graphite instead of lithium for batteries.

41:29So, you know, you have more of that instead of, you know, have to source lithium from far away.

41:35You can, you know, try to adopt, let's say, the technological or develop the technologies and the technological solutions that

41:49are more suitable to what you have.

41:51But what we have is not by far enough to gather to our energy, material, industrial, social needs.

42:03It's not just because we are, you know, rich on average, at least rich and well-off countries and we

42:11want more and more.

42:13And so our needs are infinite.

42:15Not just that there is partly there is this, but the problem is that even if we, you know, decided

42:22collectively to renounce, you know, a sizable chunk of our well-being, we would still find ourselves in this kind

42:33of situation.

42:34Because we were in this very situation, for example, at the beginning of the 20th century, where our societies were

42:42much, you know, worse off than they are now.

42:46There were agricultural societies that consumed much less, you know, energy and much less, you know, material resources.

42:55But still, we had to import, I don't know, grains, we had to import metals and so on.

43:02So you can develop your way out of some forms of scarcity, but that scarcity will stay with you, at

43:10least, you know, in the foreseeable future.

43:13And so the Chinese lesson, so to say, it's something that, you know, it's very much debated and studied, not

43:22just in negative terms, like very often can appear, but also in positive terms.

43:28I mean, what China was able to do in a quite short time span, but that lesson cannot be automatically

43:39and mechanically applied to us.

43:42Also, because political systems are different, and so what works for some Asian countries or some other countries around the

43:51world, maybe doesn't work for us.

43:53So it's a real dilemma, but I mean, the, let's say the elaboration process is undergoing, and it may lead

44:07to trade and technological solutions.

44:12It's different from the ones that have been applied up until now, at the peak of what we call, in

44:18general, globalization.

44:23Politicians openly pay homage to war criminals, the defense budget exceeds 8 trillion yen, and the nuclear materials stockpiled domestically

44:32are theoretically sufficient to produce about 1-0-0 nuclear warheads.

44:36All of this points to the fact that Japan, as a defeated nation, is systematically reverting to militarism, yet, in

44:43international public opinion, Japan still maintains its peaceful nation persona.

44:49When China criticizes Japan, the typical response from the Western world is not to ask what Japan has done, but

44:56to say China is bullying its neighbor again.

44:59This collective blindness is creating a dangerous time.

45:02Lag Japan is accelerating while the world pretends to sleep.

45:06Professor Wang Xiangzui, a Chinese strategist and deputy secretary general of the CITIC Foundation for Reform and Development Studies, points

45:14out that the West's indulgence toward Japan stems from a deeply entrenched illusion, that Japan is a peaceful nation and

45:22a member of the Western camp.

45:23This illusion is the result of decades of careful public diplomacy by Japan, but it is also a product of

45:31Western selective neglect.

45:32The problem has never been whether Westerners can see clearly, but whether they are willing to see.

45:38Faced with this situation, China's foreign communications strategy needs a fundamental shift, not rushing to prove, I am not bullying

45:46Japan, but proactively posing the question, Japan is systematically returning to militarism.

45:52What does the world intend to do about it?

45:55After World War II, Japan enacted the pacifist Article 9 of its constitution, renouncing the right to wage war.

46:02In the dominant Western narrative, Japan thereafter became a model nation focused on economic recovery and no longer involved in

46:11international conflicts.

46:12This narrative, after decades of sustained cultivation by Japan in Western public spheres, has solidified into common sense.

46:20Even today, on Western social media, the most common view remains, Japan doesn't even have an army.

46:26How could it threaten anyone?

46:28China is the real bully.

46:30This illusion has been sustained over the long term by two key pillars.

46:33The first pillar is Japan's own public diplomacy apparatus.

46:37Japan has invested substantial resources in presenting itself as the West's most reliable partner in the Asia-Pacific, a mild,

46:45non-threatening Eastern ally.

46:46This narrative has deeply permeated Western intellectual media and political circles, so much so that when Japanese politicians visit the

46:54Yasukuni Shrine, lift the ban on collective self-defense, or expand military capabilities, Western interpretations often diverge from reality.

47:03This is also partly because they are geographically distant from East Asia and lack a visceral understanding of Japan's history

47:10and present realities.

47:11The second pillar, and the more fundamental one, is that Japan is regarded by the West as one of their

47:18own.

47:18Within the Cold War framework, it was the West's forward post in the Asia-Pacific to contain communism.

47:25After the Cold War, it remains America's most important military ally.

47:30Camp allegiance overrides everything.

47:32As long as Japan stays within the Western camp, its historical issues, military expansion, and nuclear stockpiles are softened through

47:40oily-tinted lenses.

47:41An obvious but rarely mentioned double standard is, if Germany erected a fascist monument to Hitler, how would Europe react?

47:49Without a doubt, the entire West would consider Germany to be returning to fascism.

47:53Yet the Yasukuni Shrine enshrines class, are war criminals, and Japanese politicians pay homage year after year, without an equivalent

48:02level of international outrage.

48:04Germany was embraced because it thoroughly denounced Nazism, Japan, without having fully atoned for its war crimes, is still treated

48:12as a peaceful nation.

48:14In fact, not all Western strategists turn a blind on.

48:17Former Harvard President Larry Summers once noted, in the history of Sino-Japanese relations, it has always been Japan that

48:25attacked China, never the other way around.

48:27Henry Kissinger, before his death, made a clear judgment, Japan is highly likely to become a nuclear-armed state by

48:352028.

48:36So the problem has never been, can't see clearly, but unwilling to see.

48:40Most Western political elites and publics choose not to see, because once they do, they must confront an awkward predicament.

48:48A key ally is reverting to militarism, and they must continue pretending it is a peaceful nation.

48:53Thus, collective silence becomes a political convenience.

48:57Faced with Japan's three decades of gradual breakthroughs and the West's deliberate collective silence,

49:03China must clearly recognize its current diplomatic criticisms are accurate, but far from sufficient.

49:08The UN Charter still retains the enemy state clauses targeting the WWW's powers,

49:15providing China with legal grounds within international law to restrict Japan's rearmament.

49:20China has every right to demand legal verification, requiring the international community to confront the fact

49:27that Japan's nuclear material stockpiles far exceed civilian needs, and to demand an explanation.

49:33At the same time, China should make its bottom line clear.

49:37Deterrence theory rests on three elements, capability, resolve, and making the adversary believe in that resolve.

49:44China already possesses the first two.

49:46Now it needs the third to make Japan unequivocally understand that if it continues on the path toward nuclear armament,

49:54China will take all necessary measures, including military means, to stop it.

49:58The United States' red line for Iran's nuclear program is backed by the threat of bombing.

50:04For China, vis stein vis Japan, a neighbor with a history of aggression that red line will only be firmer.

50:10However, for all these measures to truly work, a deeper shift in foreign communications is required.

50:16In the past, China's diplomatic discourse has been accustomed to responding to other parties' narratives.

50:22We are not bullying Japan. We are not a threat.

50:25This logic of answering questions keeps China perpetually in a defensive, explanatory position,

50:31and it is never-ending, because every time you explain, a new question is thrown at you.

50:37Professor Wang Xiang-Sui proposes that China needs to change its mindset.

50:42Stop answering questions. Start setting questions.

50:44What does setting questions mean?

50:46It means turning the questions back.

50:48Japan enshrines class of war criminals at Yasukuni.

50:52How much longer will the world pretend not to see?

50:55Japan stockpiles enough plutonium on its own soil to make a thousand nuclear warheads.

51:01Where is the international verification mechanism?

51:03Japanese politicians openly declare that Japan should possess nuclear weapons.

51:09Why is the UN silent?

51:11Japan's defense budget exceeds 8 trillion yen, ranking third in the world.

51:16Why does a peaceful nation need so many weapons?

51:19The answers to these questions do not lie with China.

51:22They lie with Japan, and with the West that indulges it.

51:25China does not need to wake up those who pretend to sleep,

51:28but it can act as the whistleblower continuously and systematically exposing to the world what Japan is doing.

51:35Lay out the facts, pose the questions, and turn Japan's systematic return to militarism

51:40into a question the world must answer, not a question China must explain.

51:59China now, a show that opens a window to the present and future of the Asian giant.

52:04Hope you enjoyed, and see you next time.

52:09China now, a show that opens a window to the present and future of the Asian giant.

52:14So Papaya Tâylai, they believe the견��려 who's safe for the dangers of such dead or dead or dead or dead

52:16and past Thank you so much for

China Now 27-09: Deep dive into China´s present and future

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