China: America is No Longer Fit to Lead the World! ! W/Carl Zha

Hello everybody and welcome to Geopolitical Trends, where truth matters. Excited to be with you once again, and of course we are even more excited because who do we have tonight? We have none other than Carl Zap. By the way guys, we just communicated he's going to be here in about 5 to 10 minutes, so which is good idea because that gives me an, an opportunity to say hi to our community. Usually I don't get a chance to say it when we have, uh, uh, the guests here, but, uh, let me just quick see who is here. Liang, good morning. Well, it's my evening for me, but good morning to you as well. Koas Box, good to see you. Zaian, uh, US has no right to preach, but neither does China. Well, I disagree with you respectfully with that. So YT, good, good, good to see you. JD, good to see you. Taiwan Steel, as always. Hong Guan, good to see you. I haven't seen you for a while. I hope all is well. Sanktan, good to see you as always. Hi from, uh, who else is here? Bang Yu, here you are. I didn't see you for a while too. Fail You, good to see you. And who else is here? Army with Harmony, as always. Uh, see me, good to see you here. So, all right guys, uh, quickly I want to just do some housekeeping items here. Uh, remember to join me on Sunday. I don't know whether tomorrow or Sunday, I haven't decided yet, but for the community conversation I will be having Dr. Stewart will be here to answer some of your health questions. I know when we do this, uh, community conversation, it just free flow of conversation, no geopolitics. Uh, so he will be here, uh, to answer some of your question. Uh, I'm still, uh, going to be coordinating regarding my upcoming conversation with Dr. Yan Lian. Uh, she'll be here. She's out of the country, but once she's back here, we'll, we'll coordinate regarding the time. And the last thing is, uh, I want to mention to you, I am, uh, verifying, uh, um, an interesting and a very, very major developments in Iran. Uh, and either I might even do it for you tomorrow, uh, if, if I get the answers by about 2100 hours my time, which is 9 PM my time here. If not, I will have to wait till Monday, but we'll see. Uh, but it's something major developments that just took place in Iran. So As I mentioned, uh, once again, before I forget, I, I never get a chance to, to say this to you guys. Truly appreciate you keeping the conversation in the chat box very civil. I know once a while, and then usually, believe it or not, later on I go and rewatch the entire, uh, uh, conversation, but I also look at the transcripts for— so once a while there are elements here and there But I count on you guys to keep an eye open, uh, on, on that, because I can't do it all, because I focus when the guest is here to converse with him or her, uh, to provide you the right information and so forth. That is one of the reasons for why we do this one here. So, uh, yesterday you guys asked that you will want to see, uh, uh, Dr. Warwick Bao and Ina Tangle., also here on the channel, like the same way I do with, uh, with Karza. And, and we're gonna coordinate the timing for that, and, and we'll just go from there. So, okay, so that's all I have for this. I'm gonna go and, uh, uh, see if Carl is here. Well, Carl is here. Here he is. Let me bring him in right away. Carl doesn't need an introduction. You guys know Carl by now, so Hi Carl!

Hi David, thanks for inviting me.

Of course, man, anytime, anytime. I'll tell you this, Carl, and I'm not saying it to be Mr. Nice, you know me by now, so anytime the community knows you are coming, they go and prepare either coffee, tea, popcorn, whatever. That's— but that's— to me, it's not about that, it's about really they don't enjoy listening to what you have to share with the community. And I care for my community because I want them to learn something. So I'm very grateful to you on behalf of the entire community, you carving out this time for us here. So once again, thank you so much, Carl, for that.

I appreciate that, David. Thank you. Thank you very much.

We're gonna get in into a lot of topics because with you, when I do this monthly conversation, there is a lot of people, uh, in the community do not know why I do it on a monthly basis. That's usually with— guys, FYI, with Carl I cover the entire events that took place throughout the last 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks. And with Carl I like to have his insights into those particular issues. So, so I'm gonna start with the first one, uh, Carl, and this one I consider it a major, major breaking news. And this one has to do with the statements coming out of Beijing. And that statement is, and I quote, 'US has no right to preach morality when it's actively supporting genocide in Gaza,' end of quote. So here is what I want to get into, uh, Carl, and I'd like to have your input. The way I'm reading this statement, this is a loud and clear message of the intersection of where human history is regarding the new multipolar order. I did not expect China to come forward with such a statement, but this to me— and please correct me if I'm wrong— will I be wrong if I read this as, we are here, we are gonna now try to redirect and reshape the vision of the world more for equity, more for fairness, and more for justice. Your take, Art.

Well, China has definitely been more vocal lately, uh, and this is partly also due to the US own policy, uh, you know, being very aggressive toward the BRICS. You know, Trump literally said BRICS is an anti-American alliance and he's going to punish everybody for it. He's going to put like 10% tariff on everybody, and he was gonna put, uh, uh, secondary sanctions on, on purchase of Russian oil. Secondary sanction means anybody who— any companies, any organization who purchase Russian oil will be slapped with American sanction, right? So who, who is the largest purchaser of Russian oil? That's China and India. And, and, and, and like Trump was saying something about, oh, we're gonna slap 100% tariff on people who, uh, purchase Russian oil. But that's ridiculous. First of all, we just had that tariff war back in May when over 145% tariff on China basically essentially stopped the Chinese ship from coming. And, and that made, uh, Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessin travel all the way to Europe to chase down the Chinese premier for a deal in Geneva, right? So are we going to go back to that? I, I doubt it. I doubt it. Trump is all talk, and, and I think by now people have learned not to take this guy seriously. Um, but it— China is speaking more vocally now, uh, both on the Palestinian issue but on other, other global issue, um, involving United States as well. People have to understand, for decades China tried to keep a low profile, you know. In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping famously said, you know, which means, uh, buy your time, hide your strength, buy your time, right? And but now it's not an option for China anymore, you know. I, I hear some criticism of Xi Jinping, oh, why did he deviate from Deng Xiaoping's policy to keep a low profile? How can you keep a low profile when you're the world's manufacturing superpower? You know, um, the common refrain in the Western legacy media saying, oh, China is the world's second largest economy— I, I don't believe that anymore. I think that's propaganda because if you look at the, the numbers that matter, if you look at the electricity consumption, China consumes twice, twice as much as the United States. If you look at the car market, Chinese car market is— they get like 35 million cars get sold in China. It's twice the size of the US car market. Uh, so you can't fake those numbers. So by those metrics, Chinese economy is easily twice the size of US economy. Um, so even, even the PPP, um, power purchase parity calculation by World Bank and IMF, which estimate China's economy to be like, uh, 15% larger than US. I think that's also a huge understatement. You know, China's economy got to be at least twice the size of US at this moment, because US also— yeah, US and UK, they do some very shady accounting. You know, in UK, they're literally counting illegal drugs and prostitution as part of their GDP. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. They— I won't be surprised.

I won't be surprised, Carl.

That's, that's— I'm not kidding, that's real. I mean, but so whereas in China they tend to undercut their economy, a lot of the Chinese service sector, for example, uh, you know, was not really counted. Um, and, and so it's hard for China in, in the position it is in now today to, to, to like lay low and, you know, hide your strength. You can't hide your strength anymore.

No.

And, you know, and everybody else is also expecting China to take a more firmer leadership position, especially when Donald Trump is behaving like a global klong, right, and then slapping tariffs on everyone. And, and also on the Gaza issue, this is a, this is a moral issue, you know. This is— anybody who has an ounce of morality should speak out. And for a long time, China did try to kind of not to challenge United States over the issue of Israel. Because China sees Israel rightly as not just a relationship between China and Israel per se, but really as a Chinese relationship with United States, right? This is how China had— China always saw this, you know. When Palestinian Liberation, uh, uh, organization PLO visited China in the 1960s, uh, when they pay a visit to Mao, Mao had famously said, you know, the West, the— we the Chinese and the Arabs were on the opposite end of the great Eurasian continent, and the West have created the problem of Taiwan for us, and they created Israel for you. You know, this is— it's a— say we're facing the same problem of Western imperialism, just on the, on the different end of the Eurasian continent. But for, for the Chinese foreign policy since 1980s, China had been like, you know, taking a low profile because they didn't want to— they didn't see the time was right to challenge the U.S. position, uh, in the world. You know, U.S. always worry about, oh, China is going to unseat us to be the global hegemon or what. You know, China is— never China's intention to be a global hegemon. And it was, it was perfectly fine to continue to conduct trade relationship under the fabric of, uh, international institution that was set up by the United States after World War II. What we're witnessing right now is United States is destroying those international institutions. I'm talking about UN, I'm talking about, um, International Court of Justice, because US felt those institution no longer work for it. It's, it's start becoming constraining when Uh, when International Court of Justice, for example, uh, and, and labeled, uh, Netanyahu a war criminal and put a warrant out for him. And, and then, uh, you know, this is why US actually have, uh, have the Invasion Hague Act. You know, that there's a US law that says any US official that gets charged by the International Court of Justice as a war war criminals, US will launch an invasion of Hague. I'm not kidding, people can look it up.

I'm aware of that, I'm aware of that.

And so, so, you know, US no longer abides by the so-called international norm you helped to establish in the first place. And this is why now they emphasize on so-called rule-based international order, but nobody knows what those rules are because they're, they're making up those rules as they go along in Washington. That's why, that's why they call them rule-based international order. Um, and so, um, at this point, China is also less inclined than to kind of lay— to, to, to keep maintaining a low profile and not challenging United States. Um, you know, specifically on the relationship of, uh, relationship between China and Israel, I know, I know China get a lot of flack for that. Um, back in the '80s 90s, Israel basically was a back channel for China to, um, to United States. Uh, Israel was a vector for which China could still access, um, advanced Western military technology, for example. Um, because, you know, like, U.S.— there's no wall between U.S. and Israel. It's the same animal. And Israel was willing to, you know, pass on those technologies, sell those technology to the Chinese. But that conduit stopped in the 2000s and 2010s when United States asked Israel to put a stop to that. So this also give kind of lie to the, you know, we all— there's also saying like it's Israel that's controlling the U.S. government. Well, it's actually the same animal, but the U.S. clearly had, had a say in this. Because they clearly told Israel to stop military cooperation with China, right? So which means they could also tell Israel to stop genocide in Gaza. They just choose not to, right? This is, this is US. This is really— US is really complicit to, uh, to the Israeli aggression and atrocity in the Middle East. And, and, you know, now people actually expect China to say something. To stand up and say something. And, and that's what China is doing. China is now being more vocal on these issues and no longer, um, worry about, um, you know, like damaging so-called US-China relationship, because the US-China relationship is already in the gutters. That's already on like the— there's no bottom to the US-China relationship. It's, it's only how, how far It's gonna go down, can fall even further. Yeah, so, so, so now China is less constrained in its rhetoric to challenge the United States because, you know, like, they can see— they have been— when Donald Trump first became the US president, um, back in 2016, China thought, okay, maybe, maybe this guy just crazy, you know, maybe, maybe we can just wait him out, right? And, and then Biden comes in and Biden double down on all the Trump policies. On sanctioning China, trying to choke off on China's tech development. So, and, and so now China's like, okay, well, there's going to be no— we cannot expect US to modify its own behavior. Whether Trump, Biden, it's the same. It's still the same deep state functioning, uh, in the back end. And, and they, you know, now it's a bipartisan consensus among the US elite in Washington that they got to do something about China. They can't let China to continue to rise. Right, so, so this is why China is now, now speaking out, um, on issues previously that have been taking a more low-key approach. And, and, and so, so, you know, they're issuing a strong statement, but it's, it's a statement, you know, not— it's not just for, for the ears of Israel, but it's really for, for United States. Yeah, it's like, okay, we are, we are, uh, you know, we're not no longer willing to to sit by and let you run amok in the world.

Well, actually, I was even— when the statements by the Chinese regarding— literally, they are saying that Netanyahu should be arrested. So once again, that's why I was kind of surprised. I didn't expect— I'll admit it— I didn't expect Beijing to issue such a stern warning and such a statement. But it's the fact, is the truth, which by the way put the rest of the world to shame because no other country stated what the way China did. Given that I saw some images, Carl, and I wouldn't want to share them here on the screen for the massive starvation inside, uh, inside Gaza.

I mean, you talk about even, yeah, even the Israeli, its own propaganda organs is constantly posting war crimes, right? And like, I saw a posting by Israeli self, quote unquote, self-defense force that says, oh, see, we are conducting like a very humanitarian operation. And they pan out the video showing like a crowd of starving Palestinians rushing to the food truck. And the Israeli commander was telling, his troops, like, don't fire, don't fire, don't fire. And, and they're using that as example of how humane Israel is. Like, why, why, if you're so humane, why does your commander need to tell your troops repeatedly not to fire on starving civilians trying to get food? You know, like, so, but, but, but Israelis are not— they, they don't care anymore because they, they know they have the back of the United States and And, and that allowed them to, to, to, to, to carry out, uh, the genocide. And, and U.S., um, you know, you know, like, and U.S. also is not winning friends right now because, uh, not only like the, the world have seen through the U.S. hypocrisy, but, but U.S. is actively slapping everyone with sanctions, you know, whether friends or foe. U.S. just like, uh, uh, you know, I They're slapping tariffs on like Australian beef, you know, like, and, and on the, on the Europeans, and slapping tariffs on the Europeans, on the Japanese, on the Koreans. And this is why von der Leyen is in China. This is why von der Leyen is in China, because Europe is now looking for alternatives, you know. They, they can't— they, they, you know, some people finally, the European elite realizing, you know, maybe they don't want to go down with the ship. You know, maybe it's time to extend the olive branch to China.

And we will talk about Europe as we move forward. I just want to add one more aspect to this before we move on. With these statements coming out of Beijing, I mean, we're talking about, like I said, to me, I looked at it as this is a pivotal moment in the history of the world. To me, it's nothing but a reflection of truly that the multipolar order is here. And the question that is many, at least for me, I speak for myself here, I don't speak for others. The question that I keep falling back into, am I looking at China reshaping the vision of the world, one that will be based on fairness, one that will be based on, or rather, on justice, and one that will be based on human dignity? Because for me personally, Carl, when you hear statements like what the Chinese has stated, Netanyahu needs to be arrested and the US should not be preaching about human rights and democracy and so forth when they are the one contributing. That's a clear message to me that, you know, that era of the unipolar system is gone and China now sits at the top of this new order. What do you— what, what I do wrong? Will I be wrong in this assessment, Carl?

Yeah, actually China and Russia are now actually the upholders of the international norms. And, and, you know, this is when China calls for Netanyahu to be arrested, they're, they're actually following the— using the international frame, international law. You know, the warrant for, for, uh, Netanyahu was passed by International Court of Justice. Right, the court that United States helped to set up after World War II. And, and this is, uh, it's not China unilaterally calling for arrest of Netanyahu. China is calling for everyone to follow the international rules, the actual, you know, respect the ruling of, uh, International Court of Justice. And, and this is, you know, this And of course, you know, like, we know that's the rule is always apply selectively. You know, I, I, when, when, uh, International Court of Justice passed out the warrant to, for, for Netanyahu, nobody, nobody complied. Netanyahu was traveling freely to Washington nominating Donald Trump for Nobel Peace Prize, right? And, and whereas where they do get people is they got to dirty ICJ got Duterte, right? And this is why people say ICJ ruling is designed to get the brown people. It's not designed to get the white people, get the Euro-Americans, you know.

That's true. And I even, and I will, I will even go as far as criticizing Viktor Orbán of Hungary for not, you know, as a matter of fact, now the ICC is getting back to him because He is a signatory to the ICC. He should have arrested Netanyahu when he visited there, but he didn't. I, I kind of lost respect for Viktor Orbán because to me leadership matters when it's tested in a right scenario. And anyway, that's— but you are absolutely correct about the arrest, the unjust arrest of Rodrigo Duterte in comparison to what's going on with Netanyahu. Speaking of Philippines, which we're gonna— I'm gonna take your— I would like to have your insights regarding the recent visit of Marcos to the White House. And, and, and I did a video on it before, and I put a title: Was he there to cut a deal, or was he there to get marching orders? Because that's— it became clear to me, Carl. Will I be wrong?

Well, well, Marcos did work out a deal with United States. He managed to lower the tariff by 1%. That's an insult. 1%, you know, all that groveling, that gets you to lower the tariff by 1%. I mean, that's just sad. That, that's just, just, just really sad, you know, for Philippines just basically volunteer itself to be the next Ukraine in Asia, uh, you know, to, to, to be the cannon fodder for, for U.S. empire to fight China. You, you, you got slapped with tariff, and for all the effort, you are getting lowered 1%. I mean, this is, this is ridiculous. Uh, but, but the problem is the Philippines, they— it has always been ruled by this, uh, different families of oligarchies, right? Uh, well, actually, that's not very different from United States. U.S. is also been different, ruled by a different family oligarch. You know, we went from Clinton Clinton to Trump to Bush to Trump to Biden back to Trump. So yeah, you know, you get it, you get to, you get to vote which multimillionaire, which billionaire, you know, backers you want to put in the White House, uh, you know. And, and, and it's a, it's a, it's a problem. It's very profitable, you know, you know. Obama, Obama, his net worth bloomed after he became the president, you know. If you look at Obama's net worth before he became the president and after he became the president, he, he made out like a bandit, you know. He's laughing to the bank. And, and that's every, every U.S. president, uh, oh yeah. And, uh, and so, so the problem with the Philippines, just like United States, their elite do not represent the people. And, and, you know, the, the one rare occasion when, yeah, you know Duterte was immensely popular, you know, he gets slapped down because he actually dared to deviate from the policy of being the loyal lackey of the US Empire when he tried to pioneer an independent policy, you know, try to improve relationship with China, with Russia. And now he's getting, you know, made an example of, you know, US is basically making an example of him for any other US clients say that, you know, don't, don't even think about it. Don't think about pulling a Duterte on us because we're gonna get you. That, that is a message they're saying.

Yeah, well, at least now that the, uh, I just got a word that the, their Senate decided not to impeach Sarah Duterte. But I won't trust what the Marcos government is doing because I am certain The pressure from Washington is going to be to ensure that the US will have, you know, it's, it's as clear as daylight to me. I can see the writing on the wall.

So yeah, Philippines under Marcos is even a more pliant vassal to US right now than, than Japan. You know, Japan right now is actually standing up to US, say, hey, if you keep on slapping us with those tariffs, we're going to sell the US bond. You know, we're going to go nuclear on your financial market by dumping more than $1 trillion worth of US bonds that we have. Hold. Yeah, that's a big threat. That's— there's actually— but Philippines, unfortunately, you know, they don't have the cards. They don't have the cards when it comes to deal with United States. You know, they— when Trump says jump, you know, Marco asked how high.

Yeah, that's unfortunate. I did hear something, Carl, but I couldn't confirm it yet. That regarding the Philippines, why the, the turn of events, it also has to do with some rare earth elements in underground in Philippines. But I, I, I don't, I don't know. What do you think?

So, so U.S. right now is on a global hunt for rare earth materials because they're, they're really getting squeezed by China's rare earth export control. Um, so because China mines about somewhere between 60 to 70% of the, the world's rare earth supply. But more importantly, China refines over 90% of the rare earths. So right now, um, they're like, okay, no problem, we're just gonna ditch, scrap our environmental regulation in U.S. We're just gonna dig, baby, dig, drill, baby, drill, right? It's not that simple. Um, you can dig those rare earths out of the out of the Earth crust, but you still need to refine it to make, make it usable as like heat-resistant magnet, which goes into everything from cars to F-35 to missiles. But all that refining technology and machine tool, it's all in China. This is why, uh, US actually have a big operation, uh, rare earth mine called Mountain Pass, uh, mine in California. It's right, right next to Vegas. The Mountain Pass mine, one of the biggest rare earth mining US right now, everything they dig out of California, they ship it to China to process into magnets. So, so like, like that, that, you know, it's gonna take them decades to try to, uh, catch up. Because what happened was when, when China got uh, in the 1980s. Back in the 1970s, U.S. was actually a world leader in production of rare earth and, and processing of rare earth. You know, Mountain Pass mine was, was, is the biggest. But at that time, the Wall Street crank out the numbers like, ah, this is low margin stuff, we don't want to be doing this, and it's too much pollution, let's, let's offsource our pollution to China, to, to, to, to Asia. At that time, China was desperately poor. I grew up in China in 1980s. I knew, you know, China, China was trying to doing everything trying to climb the, the technology tree. So China willingly take on the dirty job of digging out the rare earth. And, and the, you know, the Americans even send out people try, uh, China then they say, okay, now we want— we don't just want to be an exporter of raw commodities, we want to, you know, built a refining capability as well. And the Americans are like, oh, no problem, we'll even help you, you know, we'll even help you to set up those operations. Because like, they— for Wall Street, rare earth, they— even though they're very crucial, but they actually don't fetch a lot of, uh, the price is not very hot, right? So for Wall Street, this is like low margin stuff. We don't need this crap. Let China handle, do all the dirty job. So, so from starting 1980s, China started to build both the mining capability and the refining capability. Now it's 40 years later, all the evolutions of the new technology involved in rare earth refining happened in China. China, all the, all the new technology is Chinese. And, and one, especially the application of the rare earth magnets is, uh, you know, for example, electric cars, right?

Yeah.

And not even, even ICE cars, in the car motor, because the car motor, they generate a lot of heat. And normal magnets, they get demagnetized under heat. But rare earth materials' special property is that you can use it to make heat-resistant magnets. And that's why all cars, they, they need those magnets. And, you know, they, they can't get those magnets, they have to move their operation to China. So China relaxed the export control on rare earth supplies to US car companies for 6 months, right? Yeah, but they did not relax the control to US military-industrial complex. So now, so US is now trying to do a China— they're trying to implement a Chinese-style industrial policy, but they do it, do it with American characteristics. So Pentagon just invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the Mountain Pass mine in California. You know, this is what Washington calls a public-private partnership, right? So the U.S. government is now piling, pushing out piles of money to MP Materials, which operates the mines in California, says, okay, um, we don't care, we're gonna promote your, your production. So, um, we know the, the rare earth material, they, the price is not very high, but we'll guarantee you will have a customer, which is a U.S. military, because U.S. military, they need that stuff to make missiles, right? So yeah, okay, they can, they can, uh, they can dig out of the earth, no problem. But they still, right now, they still— the big bottleneck is still refining. They still depend on China for refining. And, and, and right now, any companies that want to get their hands on Chinese rare earth or Chinese, uh, rare earth heat resistance magnet, they have to file application to the Chinese Commerce Ministry, says, please, sir, can I have some rare earth for the next 6 months? And it's— they're subject for renewal every 6 months. You know, Chinese Commerce Ministry will monitor you, make sure you are not diverting those supply to the Chinese military, otherwise you're not gonna— your license is not gonna get renewed. And, and also, um, military equipment actually require a different grade of rare earth. You know, like the, the, the, the, the heat-resistant magnets using, using jet fighter plane, uh, submarine cobalt, uh, it's a, it's a different grade than what goes into the normal civilian car use. So, you know, China can, can, can, can, can easily control that. And this is why US is doing like a global Easter hunt for rare earth material right now. Like, one of the reason US, um, step in to, to, um, to mediate between the conflict between Congo and Rwanda is so for US to secure the rare earth, uh, mining rights in Congo. But again, even if they dig out of the Congo, they still have to ship it to China to refine it, you know. It's gonna it's gonna take them at least 10 years to, you know, acquire the, the latest rare earth refining technology. You know, if they somehow are able to poach some Chinese engineers, you know, yeah, industrial espionage, whatever, but it will still take them 10 years, at least 10 years, because you need to set up the factory, you need to get your hands on the equipment, which right now is all produced in China, and then, and then, you know, you need to get some engineers who are, who know how to do this stuff, and they're mostly Chinese. And then, you know, maybe in 10 years you can get your shops running. In the meantime, your stockpile is dwindling because your, your stockpile has already been depleted in Ukraine and now in Israel. Um, you know, NATO already complained their stockpile is at the very dangerously low level, and they have a face a real supply constraint because of the Chinese, uh, rare earth export control.

Very, very interesting. Well, speaking of this, uh, uh, uh, because I was aware of the 90% controlled by the Chinese regarding the, the rare earth because of the refinement. And I know in the US we don't have the infrastructure for this, let alone the brain power that will do all this. Now, now within this context, when we look at the, uh, the, the tariffs that the US has been pushing, uh, for the— on the Chinese. And yet the GDP of China went up by about 5.4%, exceeding the expectations of most financial analysts here in the US. So they kind of didn't expect— is like Donald Trump saying, oh, I am taxing, I'm putting more tariffs on the Chinese, expecting to sink their economy, and yet their GDP has exceeded the expectations of— what do you contribute that to, Carl, in your opinion?

Yeah, I mean, first of all, you know, a lot of people would, you know, you know, a lot of American copium were going to say, oh, the Chinese numbers are fakes. Okay, first of all, if you look at other statistics, for example, the Chinese export— Chinese export also went up 5%, um, and you can't— it's very hard to fake export numbers because those things goes through, you know, you go through both. There's the export-import, right? And when you import from China, that's logged through the custom. It's really hard to, to, to, to fake those numbers. So, so if you look at the Chinese export number, Chinese exports up 5%. If you look at the Chinese electricity consumption, again, that's another number, it's very hard to fake, uh, because, you know, your power generation, once you Once you, um, generate the power, it gets consumed, right? And so, so, so by, by all the other metrics, China's economy has grown at least 5% as, as it's, uh, reported. And, and, and a lot of this growth is coming from not direct trade from United States, which basically cratered as a result of the tariff. Yeah, because China has expanded the market outside the United States. Now they sell to Southeast Asia, which is the number one trading partner of China, and then they sell to Europe, to EU. And this is why von der Leyen again is in Beijing talking to Xi Jinping, because, uh, Europe without is worried that, that, uh, you know, China is going to redirect, uh, a lot of the export previously, um, set from the US, United States. Yeah. To Europe. You know, this is why von der Leyen keep on talking about, oh, we got to rebalance our trade to make sure the trade is fair. But look, EU, you guys already slap on 35% tariff on the Chinese EVs, and Chinese EV still selling like hotcakes. And because fundamentally there's a big misunderstanding in, in, in the West about how Chinese industry works. You know, the common refrain nowadays It's all because the Chinese government subsidies. Like, you think Chinese government somehow just magically print, uh, like they, they print money like the way the Fed, the US, they continually subsidize consumer of the world, you know? Like, so, so you're— if you, if, if Chinese is provide— Chinese government is provide subsidies, then you should buy Chinese goods, bankrupt Chinese government in doing so, right? That would be the perfect strategy. Yeah, but Um, actually that's not the case because, for example, take, take the Chinese car example. Yeah, cars in China are sold very cheaply, but as soon as those same cars get exported outside of China, their price double. So a lot of the Chinese car companies right now, they're losing money selling cars in China. They're making money when they sell cars to Europe, to, to Southeast Asia, because they can mark up the price a lot higher than they could in China. And, and, and the reason that Chinese consumers are benefiting from very low price, even lower than production price in many cases, is because there's an intense competition in China. It's actual free market that's, that's driving the price down. Because, because there's a lot of car makers in China now, and they're all trying to— especially BYD. BYD right now is trying to kill all their competition. So they're pricing their the car as low as possible. Um, so, so this is why all other Chinese car makers right now going to the Chinese government to complain about BYD because they're saying BYD is trying to kill the competition. And, and, and Chinese government is actually organizing, telling everybody to come together, say like, okay, well, maybe you guys can like cut the price war stuff. But guess what? The price war benefited the Chinese consumers because they can buy a very good car for like $15,000 US dollars, like very good car. Um, and, and, but, but those same car, when they're exported to Indonesia, I have to pay $20,000. Why is that? Yeah, $20,000. Well, um, oh, one part is because of tariff or transportation costs, but another part is because once the cars are exported, the Chinese car makers are not competing against other Chinese car makers anymore. They're competing against the legacy car makers like Toyota, like Volkswagen, you know, like— so, so their price, even though double the price they were selling in China, is still competitive against, against the other car makers. And this is why Europe is panicking right now. They're, they're thinking, oh my God, we're going to be flooded with the Chinese cars. And, and, and what BYD also found a, a workaround because the current Chinese— European, uh, tariff on Chinese EV is 35%. Yeah, but just on Chinese EVs. So, so what BYD does is like, okay, I'm just gonna sell plug-in hybrid in Europe so I only have to pay the regular 10% tariff. And so, so plug-in Chinese plug-in hybrid is now selling like hotcakes in Europe because they're very price competitive, um, and BYD is making money doing that. And, you know, unlike what they're doing in the Chinese market where they're actually willingly take a loss in order to gain market share to kill their Chinese rivals, um, so, so, so now all the Chinese car company now in order to survive, they are now all rushing to export, to export because they can, they can sell their car for, for better price. And now Mexico right, right across the border from Rio Grande. Now 25— one quarter of the Mexican car market is now Chinese cars. You know, this is only happening in the last few years. And, and I, I know, like, people are talking about creative way of getting a Chinese EV into United States. They say, oh God, okay, like, you can buy a used car in Mexico because Chinese companies also using all kind of gimmicks now. They're, they're selling They're selling cars, they're exporting cars, but labeling as used car even though they have never been driven. They're labeling them as used cars to get around of the tariff issue, right? Because the tariff is different for new cars and used cars. And so people are like, okay, you can, you can go cross the border to Mexico to buy those quote unquote used cars in Mexico, then drive it to United States. But that actually, I don't think that will work because in California there's all kind of regulations. Yeah, what kind of cars can be allowed on the road? You have to like get the certifi— you have to be certified by, by the DMV. Uh, I, I don't think they're gonna get that anytime soon. But anyway, it's still like, like, uh, right. And, and BYD, they build their own fleet of tankers to ship their cars. You know, they, they, because the— because of what happened with Yemen blockade of the Red Sea, the Red Sea, the shipping charges are going up. So BYD did the math. They realized, okay, if we just build and own our own ships, we can save $4 billion a year, you know.

Oh my gosh.

So they, they not— and, and the latest news this week Yeah, is a BYD. They just sent a, a, a, a big, uh, ship full of BYD EVs through the Red Sea, going through the Suez Canal with no problem, because, because the Houthis are not— they know these cars are going to Europe, you know, they're not going to Israel.

Israel.

So they're, they're letting them go through. So, so BYD, now they, um, after that passage, now there's more BYD tankers that going through the Red Sea, right, transiting through the Red Sea right now as we speak. And, and while the others have to avoid Red Sea, you know, this is why, um, uh, I remember I was asking a pro— about a question, you know, what, um, if Iran do close the Strait of Hormuz, if a conflict breaks out, wouldn't that hurt Iranian export of oil to China? Yeah, well, well, Iranian can just do what the Houthis do. They just let the Chinese ship pass. Yeah, they know which ship is going to China. They can just let the Chinese and Russian ships going through and blocking all other ships. That's what the, what the Yemeni, uh, Ansar Allah are doing right now. They're not targeting—

yeah, they're not targeting—

remember BYD BYD was— got to be very confident for doing this because those electric cars, once you— they get light on fire, it's hard to put out because the electric fire is a lot harder to, to put out. And they have a whole giant ship full of those electric cars and they're speeding through Red Sea like, like nobody else's business. So that, that means they're very confident it's safe for them to do so. Yeah.

So that, that's just, uh, I want to go back to Europe just briefly here, quickly, because we still have other stuff to cover here. Is this means that the Europeans wanted to have a piece of the pie knowing how the oil market is going to be? Because the US, we're gonna be, we're gonna be holding the end of the stick. But here is the thing, Carl, and here's the question for you: should China trust the EU?

Well, I think, I think China have a very pragmatic approach to EU. They always hope for the best but prepare for the worst. The worst, you know, like, because EU being what it is, like, the— I, there's still no evidence that European leader has grow a spine, you know, when it comes to United States. Um, so, so China is trying to encourage European autonomy. They're trying to encourage European leaders to grow a spine But ultimately, it's up to the European leaders, you know, whether they can really, you know, stand up to the US and pioneer independent foreign policy.

I have my doubts, Carl. I have family lives in Europe. I was, you know, growing up and hearing stuff, and I have my doubts.

One of the key issues von der Leyen raised with China besides trade was they're actually trying to persuade China again to to put pressure on Russia over Ukraine, which is— what? This is a— it's a non sequitur. That's not gonna happen. That is not gonna happen. China is not gonna cut the trade ties with Russia at this point. For what? And so, so right now, these are a lot of wishful thinking still on the parts of European elite. Somehow they can, you know, it's like, why, why would China help you to sabotage Russia when the next target will be China. That will just mean that allows United States to pivot more resources to, to Western Pacific. So yeah, that does not make sense.

And speaking of Europe— yeah, go ahead, go ahead, Carl.

No, I mean, Europe, they still have to make— they have yet to make peace with the fact that, you know, China will always pursue its own independent foreign policy strategy that works out for China, like what every other country should be. You know, it's, it's only, only Europe right now that's only like being a pliant proxy for Washington, you know. Yeah, shaking their tails and, and ask how high when Trump says jump, jump.

Well, you remember, you remember, Carl, about a year and a half ago, almost 2 years, when Biden was still in office, you know how many European leaders flew to China And I remember I did a video and I said, is Beijing becoming the next Rome? All the roads lead to Beijing, you know, because I was seeing one after another going.

What they're doing right now, David, they're hedging. They're hedging their bets. Same thing like the Saudis and the GCC. They're all hedging their bets. They kind of see the USA Titanic is starting to sink. They don't want to be dragged down with it, right? So they're already hedging their bets, and they're already like, they see that China is, is obviously rising, and they want to be at least on a working, uh, working relationship with China. Yeah. And also, they can use a relationship with China then as a leverage in their dealing with Washington. They, you know, this is what Saudi is doing. It's like, hey, we, we have alternatives. If you keep on pressing and pressuring us We're gonna have no choice but to work with China. So this is why Trump did that tour throughout the Gulf, you know, throughout GCC, to show them, okay. And it's very telling what Trump told them. Trump says, uh, we're gonna stay out of your hair, we're gonna stay out of your business, right? This— I know this is what you wanted, and I will give it to them. This is all the GCC wanted, you know. This is for, for United States stay out of their hair. And, and, and that's has been the consistent foreign policy of China, you know. There's a whole long non-interference policy means China do not get involved in, in the, you know, all the GCC internal, internal matters. Uh, and Trump now is just kind of trying to catch up. They're trying to apply the same, uh, the Chinese principle in, in approach to foreign policy, but I don't think that will succeed because US being what it is, it's an empire, you know. I, I don't think that will— it's the same thing like right now US is literally trying to do industrial policy, right? Like, like I mentioned that the Pentagon putting investment into, uh, Mountain Pass mine trying to produce rare earth in United States, but US government is not structured for that. Um, what more likely will happen is Pentagon or whatever arms or government, they will push a lot of money to a selected few of those 1% who's going to get that money as a, as a grift. And, and, and, and whether that will produce result, that, that doesn't really even matter. Like, like F-35's, uh, effectiveness was not the issue. The whole reason for F-35 is to suck money from the US government. That— so, so that's how US works. That's how the so-called private public partnership in US works. Everything is a grift. Um, you know, I, I don't— just in my past experience, I don't have too much confidence in US carrying out successful, uh, industrial policy that way that China has done.

No, it won't. And we will touch on the weapon systems, uh, uh, soon here. So about speaking of this European maneuvering, you know. I am noticing also that during the same time frame, Albanese of Australia end up coming to China. What the heck is this all about? All of a sudden Albanese is heading out to Beijing. What should China expect?

Well, I mean, for Australian side, they're trying to repair the damage that was done, uh, to the China-Australian relationship by their previous leader, right? And, uh, who, who was the Trump lackey. Yeah, Scott Morrison was a loyal Trump lackey, right? And, and, uh, so, so right now Australia is trying to put the Australian-China relationship back on track. Um, and again, Australia is also hedging too. I mean, I, I actually— it makes even more sense for Australia to repair their ties because China is their largest customer. You should, you should not offend your customer, right? Like, what Scott Morrison did was moronic. You know, you are pissing off your largest export market. Uh, and so, so, so, and, and this is at the same time when Trump is, uh, putting 50% tariff on Australia over steel and beef. And like, Trump put out a tweet saying, oh, oh, like, uh, Australia will be the perfect market for the American beef. I'm like, no, no, Australia— selling beef to Australia is like selling oil to Saudi Arabia. Like, what are you doing, man? What— you know, it's like, uh, but, but this is Trump. Trump, Trump, Trump, everything. That's a victory, you know, so he can claim victory.

But he lied. He lied. But because I'm saying— you know what, Carl? He was saying that the meat in America is best and the safest. I know what they injecting in meat here.

Yeah, even Taiwan had put trade restrictions against American beef, you know. Like, this was actually a huge controversial issue when, uh, the last Taiwanese leader trying to remove those restrictions on, on the American beef because, you know, Taiwan public, they don't trust They don't trust American beef safety standards because, you know, it got injected with all kind of hormones and chemicals. And, uh, and, and, and, and you— but, but people— and that was actually a big controversial issue in Taiwan, you know. And, and so, so, so, so Trump is just exasperating all these issues with its quote-unquote allies. And this is why they're all going to China, because China is now emerging As a clear global leader, a stable, a stable hand in, in today's environment compared to this, uh, the shizzle that lives in, in the White House.

Yeah, well, speaking of that, Carl, before we move into the weapons aspect, uh, I did a survey for the community and I asked them this question: given the chaotic and failed policies of the US, will the US allow China to surpass it economically? When I say allow it, I don't mean that China needs authorization from China. No, no, no, no, no. What I mean by allow, another word, where the circumstances of the current global, uh, uh, landscape allow China to surpass the US economically. 45%, 45% said yes, 49% said no, and 6% say I don't know. What do you think, Carl?

Well, I mean, U.S., for the last 15 years, U.S. has been choking, trying to choke off China's economic progress. Yeah, all, all, and all failed. Policy failed. You know, this is how, this is, or this is why, this whole reason for the U.S., uh, uh, tech, uh, the tech sanction, the chip sanction, that's all to slow down China's progress, but it hasn't worked. And so it's, it's just a matter of fact that China— I mean, it's not surpassing— China is already bigger than— already than, than United States, you know, economically. I mean, anyone who traveled to China, you know, anyone who with eyes who traveled to China can see, you know, China is on, on the track to be the most dominant economic player in the world. Um, and, and, and the people in China are having great quality of life. That, that— this is why I highly encourage people to travel to China to see for themselves, you know, because, you know, let your lying eyes convince you, you know, what the reality really is, not, not those propaganda pieces for for, for the corporate media.

Yeah, I was there last year and I saw with my own eyes. I can't wait to really visit again if an opportunity presents itself. But, but on the other hand, I became convinced of what I saw. Uh, that's when you have a government that is working for its people, you know. I look at it just in the case, Carl, of, uh, and I'm sure you're familiar with this case here, of the, uh, uh, he was the, uh, an official who got, uh, uh, his name is Zhang Zilin, was the former vice governor of Southwest China, Yunnan Province. That's the Chinese sent him to prison for corruption. You know, it's kind of— this is when you realize you have a system that works for the benefit of its citizens. I wish my government and I wish our justice system would be as fair, but again, it will be nobody left in Congress.

Exactly, exactly. You wipe out the whole American government. Yeah, overnight. Uh, we can't have that. Uh, but, but that's the thing, that the US government is structured to funnel money towards the top 1%. You know, it's not structured to do industrial policy, to invest in infrastructure, to invest in education. Forget about it, that would take years. To, to, for, to see fruits. Or, uh, but you know, like, that, that's way too long. That's way beyond the election cycle, right? Right now everything is about the short term, who wins the election. And this is why they all always go for like divisive social issues, right?

Yeah.

Rather than tackle real prob— like, real problem, like, of the, the whole, uh, structural economic decline. Uh, you know, because no one wants to touch that. That's actually hard work, right?

Yeah.

Why not to take a stance on, on, you know, some, some social issue where all you have to say is I'm for this, I'm against this, and then you, you are guaranteed at least 50% of the support from the public?

Is this means, Carl, and this is like a really a fundamental question regarding the system, is this means that our system is a failure? In your opinion?

Well, I mean, I think for people, people can see, I mean, the, the MAGA crowd, the way— the reason that propelled Trump into the office is because they, they understand fundamentally the system. I mean, why, why would there be slogans of cleaning out the swamp? You know, to, to get rid of the deep state. Because everybody in U.S. have now come to the realization the system is not working for— it's working great for the billionaires, but it's not working for the average Joe. And, and, and, but, but Trump is not the solution, unfortunately. Here's the problem, you know, like, like the Chinese, like the Chinese, uh, geopolitical analyst, some way, what he said, you know, Trump, he understand the problem, but His solution only makes things much, much worse.

Well said, well said. Uh, let's tackle— we still have— we are at the top of the hour, but are you okay with time, Carl? You had— you have at least 15, 20 more minutes. Okay, I want to be respectful of your time here. So, uh, there is one more— two, two or three other topics, as a matter of fact, I'd like to have your inputs on. And this one has to do with the event that took place between India and Pakistan, the clashes that took place. And of course, we all know that the Pakistanis defeated the Indians and shut down about 6— to my knowledge, 6 fighter jets using the Chinese weapons. Now we also know that Iran has acquired, uh, weapons from the Chinese. And even to my knowledge this morning, that the Russians have sent something specific to Iran. I'm gonna do a video on this next week, maybe, uh, waiting for a confirmation. My point is, are we starting now to see, for example, when you take the difference between the F-35 and the, the J-10 for the cost, the performance, the, the efficiency, and the technology aspects, is, is the Chinese weapons now going to become the next dominant factor? On the global stage?

Well, I think there will be a lot more export of the Chinese weapon system. Um, uh, I think especially when they, uh, the Chinese J-35 start exporting, which, which could come very soon, uh, because Chinese J-35 will be the answer to the F-35. And, and then, uh, you know, we, we might— people might get to find out in real battle situation what a piece of crap F-35 really is, you know, uh, and because people call J-35 a copycat of F-35, but what if a J-35 actually shoots back at the F-35, right? And, and so, so, um, one thing that the Pakistan, uh, India conflict has shown is the modern combat is really about you are pitting system against system. So it's not just the J-10C. It's also the J-10C's PL-15 missile, which has, has a very long range beyond the visual range. And then you have the data link between the AWACS plane and the, and the J-10C, which allows the AWACS to feed the coordinate of the Indian Rafale planes to the J-10C. And so, so this is a— Pakistan has done the system integration very well. So when, when China start exporting, you know, there— it's not just going to be a piecemeal hardware. There's going to be, uh, uh, uh, in, in, in Iran's case, they're already on the Chinese Beidou system, right? Because they cannot rely on GPS. Yeah, they're already on the Chinese Beidou system, and the Beidou system, the satellite constellation, allow them to do targeting. Right? And that's very important in modern, uh, uh, combat, this— to use the satellite intelligence for— to, to pick their target and, and to feed that data then possibly to a J-10C if they purchase J-10C. And there's also, uh, they, they have a network, uh, with, with the ground radars, right? And, and, and so, so these— so this is just a beginning. This is This is why I say that the decision for Iran to purchase air defense system from China, for example, this is going to be a start of decade-long exercise of relationship building. Because once you purchase this weapon system, this modern weapon system, you're gonna need to send your personnel for training. You're gonna need people come to you to train you, and, and, and Like, if you look at the close cooperation between Pakistan-Chinese military, for example, the, the Pakistan military regularly conduct joint drills with the Chinese military. And that's already started happening, by the way, between Iran, Russia, and, and China. They have already staged several joint naval drills in the Persian Gulf region, and, and I expect to see that continue. You know, this means there will be a tighter and tighter integration between these militaries, between Iran, Russia, and China.

As a matter of fact, to my knowledge, it was a meeting that just took place between Mr. Wang Yi and the head of the Pakistani Army, General Syed Asim Munir. And I got a word about that one, that which is to me, it's very, very significant because that doesn't bode well for India because India now is end up holding the end of the stick given their multi— they don't know which, which direction the wind is blowing. But, but that's a, that's a—

I, I also like to mention, yeah, China and Vietnam just held their first ever joint military exercise together, you know, in, in the first in 75 years, and, and You know, this is kind of shatters the whole Western delusion about using Vietnam as a counterweight against China. Like, their military are literally exercising together right now. Um, and it's also a big step, you know, like, to heal the, the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, whatever wound left over between, uh, after 1979, uh, uh, Sino-Vietnamese War, because A whole generation has passed by, you know, like I'm— I was born in 1976, so, you know, I'm almost like 49. Uh, it's not like a couple generation has already passed, enough water under the bridge for the two sides now working closer together. And, and we saw that when Xi Jinping visited Vietnam and, you know, they roll out the red carpet. So, so yeah, so, so this is, uh, this is where, uh, again, China can Uh, you know, you know where another area China could potentially show leadership? Yeah, is, is conflict mediation between Thailand and Cambodia. Yeah, you know, right now there's a war going on between Thailand and Cambodia, and both countries have very friendly relationship with China. And, you know, China is actually— both Thailand and Cambodia purchase Chinese air defense systems that Iran also just purchased. So, so now, now this is an area where China can potentially come in and say, hey guys, you know, let's, let's calm down a little bit, you know, we don't, we don't need to fight over this. Um, and because one, if one thing China really hates is instability around its neighborhood, uh, because for China's Belt and Road project to go out, you know, infrastructure, they need a stable political environment, and war is absolutely the worst. And so I think China have a very strong interest to help calm down the waters between, between Thailand and Cambodia, so the two countries can go back to infrastructure development, invest in their people, and continue to uplift their people into, into the 21st century.

Yeah, and it would be very, very important that conflict. I am keeping an eye on it as to how it all erupted and so forth.

But I'm surprised you haven't asked me.

I was going to ask you about that one. So I know it has to do with the shrine of the Khmer Rouge location there. And when the Cambodians start citing the national anthem, I guess the Thai didn't like that. But this is not new. I mean, the issue has been, you know, rolling over the years. My concern was always, you know, are there any other hidden hands behind this sort of emerging conflict that would create instability in the region? Because we saw, we saw, for example, with Vietnam and China, we saw Cambodia and China, Thailand and China, and I start to put the pieces together I could be wrong, but I, I, I, I say never exclude any possibilities.

Everything can happen. So I think people sometimes tend to confuse the two, you know. Yeah, there's also, there's local agency, you know. Nobody can really arm twist Thai and Cambodian military to go to war against each other because there's already existing conflicts that date back a century, right? But it doesn't mean somebody didn't light a match and, you know, throw into the— to the oil well. And, and the, uh, you know, everything— don't exclude any possibilities. And, and, you know, what we do know, observing by United States, the U.S. role for the last 20 years have been acting as a spoiler. U.S. is basically lighting fire all around the world So that makes US seem this oasis of calm among the world light on fire. So all the foreign investments can continue to come in, you know, like all the foreign investors can continue to park their money in the US dollar bonds, in the US stock market, in US real estate market. That prop— continue to prop up the dollar hegemony, which is really one of the last pillars of the US Empire right now to, to, to keep it afloat. And, and, and, and this, you know, this— if you observe it objectively, that's what US has been doing. They've been, they've been stirring up trouble all over the place. They're not interested in, in building up infrastructure. The US haven't built up infrastructure. US don't even build up infrastructure at home, much less, much less other countries. And, and, you know, this is, uh, this conflict is not some, you know, yeah, Thailand, Cambodia really can't afford this right now. You know, they, they have, they have much more urgent issue to attend to. You know, they're not rich countries, they're, they're still on the path of development, and this is really a big distraction for, for both, for both countries. I mean, I understand the emotions runs high because this is an issue of national It's a cultural heritage, national honor. Again, this is the issue that was left over by colonial legacy of the French. You know, you can never go wrong by blaming the French, right? In this case, you will be right because, because this is, this is what, what exactly what France did. Because, you know, uh, the issue of— first, the issue of identity is very fraught because Uh, Cambodia used to be much larger than it is today. Used to be the Khmer Empire, which spanned across present-day Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, southern Vietnam, you know, at its height. And then, um, and then, but, but then after the Khmer Empire started to decline, the Thai-speaking people they were being chased out of, uh, Southwest China by the Mongol invasion, and they were coming to en masse migrate to Southeast Asia. And they took advantage of the decline of the Khmer Empire to carve out their own country, and that, that's to be becoming Siam and modern Thailand. And so, so there's, there's a lot of, uh, kind of history there. And, and then And when, uh, but at one point, you know, Siam was actually the overlord of Cambodia. Um, uh, Cambodia was kind of subjugated. And then, then the French, French came in, uh, in the, in the 19th century. They, they carve out the so-called French Indochina, which included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. And then, uh, but, but then they have— they come face to face with Thailand at the same time. British was coming from the west. British conquered Myanmar, Burma, and, and they incorporate Burma into the British India. So now suddenly Thailand is sandwiched between, yeah, the, the French position and the British position. And, and, and the, and Britain and France decided, okay, well, we'll let Thailand be to be a buffer state between us. And this is how Thailand preserved its independence, but The French, they still want their pound of flesh, so they start to carve a large part of the former Siam territory to attach it to French Indochina. And in 1904, they, uh, they made the Thai government to agree to demarcate the border along the so-called watershed principle. Well, you know, so there's a, there's a mountain range that, that run along the border And the France says, hey, that, that, that mountain forms a natural border between Thailand and Cambodia. Uh, except 4 years later, the France, when the France, they actually survey the terrain and drew their maps, they're like, ah, just kidding, I, I, I have to make some adjustment, I have to make some adjustment. You know, these areas that, that holds the ancient Hindu temples built by Khmer Empire, that's very important cultural heritage site for Cambodia. So those, those parts have to go be inside Cambodia, and there's nothing much that Thailand could do at that point because France was a very strong colonial power. Um, and, and the, and the Thai finally raised the issue in the 1930s, but then the, the international courts, the European says, ah, sorry, you lost your chance. It took you 20 years to complain. So that means for the 20 years you acknowledge those— the France had control over those areas. Too late, you pass a date of expiration. So the, the Thai had to wait until 1954, uh, when French, French got kicked out by the Vietnamese, uh, you know, after the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The, the France had to go to Geneva to sign the Geneva Peace Conference. Where they agreed to evac, to get the hell out of so-called French Indochina, which included Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. And that's where Americans— that's where Americans went in, took over from the France. But anyway, but, but, but the Thais, they took the opportunity to occupy those disputed territories, uh, when the French troops were left, left. But then the, the Cambodia took Thailand to International Court of Justice to, to make a ruling on the possession of those temples, but particularly on this one important Hindu temple site called Preah Vihear. And the ICJ made a ruling in 1962 that says, okay, the temple should belong to Cambodia, but they didn't make a ruling on the land surrounding the temple. And that created a problem because the temple itself, it sits on top of a cliff. You cannot access it from the Cambodian side because they're on top of this mountain, and the, the, the, whereas you can only be accessed from the, from the Thailand side, right? And, and, and that created further friction. And there was a conflict back in 2008, um, when Cambodia applied for UNESCO Heritage Site status for Preah Vihear Temple. And the Thai objected, like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, this is— did you forget to ask somebody? This, this should be a joint position of Thailand. This is our common heritage, it's common here. Yeah, Thailand and Cambodia, we should both apply to the UNESCO, uh, recognition. So that led to the flare-up the conflict in 2008 where they exchanged artillery fire. And then 2011, 2013, there was a second round of flaring up. This is when, uh, ICJ passed a second ruling. They say, okay, this land around in the immediate vicinity of the temple should go to Cambodia. Thai troops should pull out. And Thailand didn't want to recognize, like, Why, you know, why, why do we have to abide this stupid, uh, uh, uh, um, stupid, uh, a border that was set down by the French, you know, a century ago? So that led another fresh round of outbreak of violence. So, so now today is only the latest round of this conflict, but, but it's happening at a very interesting time because the conflict already— there was already a conflict back in May. Two sides exchanged, uh, fires. And at that time, the Thai prime minister made a phone call to the Cambodian leader Hun Sen, but the audio got leaked. Audio got leaked. And, and because during the call, she called Hun Sen uncle, and she said, oh, uncle, we're so sorry, you know, it's our— it's a Thai generals that made a mistake. We didn't need to have this, uh, the border dispute. So when the audio got leaked, that raised a huge uproar in Cambodia. It's like in Thailand, it's like, what? Why? Why are you calling the enemy leader uncle? And why are you apologizing? Why you— why are you blaming our generals? And, and so, so Thai court, they suspended the Thai prime minister from her duty. And the Thai court is right now, this month is about to make a ruling on whether permanently remove her from her— from office as prime minister. So this is at this juncture the conflict broke out and escalated. So I mean, this can— cannot be a coincidence, right? I mean, someone really do not want the Thai minister— prime minister to stay in her position, right? I mean, like, like, uh, she's been set up. Obviously. And, and on Cambodian side, there's also a leadership transition. Hun Sen was handing over to his son as the leader of Cambodia. So the new leadership need to prove itself as a guardian of the Cambodian territorial integrity, national honor, etc. So they have to act tough, you know. And so, so this is, uh, this is why on both side it's kind of, uh, irreconcilable differences. But But the way that you quickly escalating into like, you know, multiple rocket launchers, uh, from Cambodia and then F-16s bombing, uh, it, it, it's, it's a little bit suspicious. Like, yeah, this, this conflict essentially over a very small sliver of land, um, that, that was a decade-long conflict that would, you know, break out into such violence. Um, but I, I hope both sides will calm down and, and, and, and resolve, at least have it a frozen conflict and get back to building their country, because, because neither side should, uh, could afford this right now.

I had a chance to visit both locations, both Thailand and Cambodia, and especially for Cambodia, it was in 2009 or 2010, somewhere around that time, and I remember in Cambodia, in Phnom Penh, when I stayed there, I could see the influence of French culture inside certain circles inside the capital there. And I was like, very interesting how same thing I saw on different aspects in Thailand, in Bangkok, even though I stayed very short time there. So it was very interesting. Uh, I need to ask you one last question before I let you, uh, Carl, go here. And this one has to do something like I said, guys, earlier, just for you to know, when I have Carl here, I cover with him really what happens for the last 2-3 weeks because I always want to listen to his insights regarding those major events that took place. You know, one major one that took place, in my opinion, deserved at least some, uh, uh, uh, discussion, as briefly as it can get. This one has to do with the ASEAN Foreign Minister Summits that took place. And I remember one particular picture has to do with, uh, Marco shaking hands with Lavrov. But when it comes down to the meeting with the Chinese The Chinese made it clear, you are not going to shake our hands. We will sit down and that's all it's gonna be. And the reason I'm mentioning this is because there were some reports here. They never disclosed that it was no handshake between the US and China, but a meeting took place between Marco Rubio and Wang Yi of China. US met with China. So What, what do you— first of all, why the heck was the US in the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Summit?

Well, US, US consider itself a Pacific power. I mean, this, this is, this is, uh, you know, like they, they, they, they, they still act like they never left the Philippines, right? I mean, now they're back on the Filipino military bases and including the, the stationing of the Typhoon missiles. And, and, and Philippines is the linchpin of their strategy to contain China. So, so there, that, this is why they're there. And, and about shaking hands, actually, U.S. is very pity about this. In 1954, the Geneva Conference that ended the first sign of first Indochina War, uh, when France agreed to gave up and go home. And Chinese Prime Premier Zhou Enlai attended the meeting, you know, to negotiate with France, uh, United States. And, and at that time, Zhou Enlai went to the U.S. delegate, you know, to, to shake hands, but U.S. refused, refused to shake hands with the Chinese, uh, because they don't want to be used as a photo So, oh, so US has, has always done this. And, uh, but, but from the Chinese side, um, you know, they're willing to meet with the Philippines because the Philippines are still neighbors, you know, unlike United States. United States is in Asia but not of Asia. Philippines is still neighbor of China, right? Unless Marcos can work out a deal with Pentagon, they can tow the Philippine Islands into the middle of the Pacific, uh, that's not happening. So, so neighbors will be neighbors. So China will try to work with the Philippines, you know, despite, uh, you know, all the shenanigans Marcos pulled.

Yeah. And the last thing, Carl, it has to do with the US pressuring Japan and Australia over Taiwan. What the heck is where this is going with this pressure stuff. Will, will Japan, in your opinion, given what's going on with the— I'm sure you're aware of the outcome of the elections in Japan, it's bad news for the ruling party— will Japan and Australia push back against the bullying of the US? Will they have the gut to do it?

Well, well, I mean, well, I think we can see Japan, there's already a lot of roadblocks on the trade negotiation between Japan and U.S. Another round of talks just wrapped around with no, no concrete agreement. Because for Japan, a lot of these, uh, what they saw as bullying by Trump is existential for the Japanese industries, especially the auto market. Um, because 25% tariff on foreign auto parts, that hit the Japanese automaker like Toyota, Nissan, and, and Honda very hard, uh, because, you know, United States remain a very important market for them. It's the world's second largest car market after China. And, and unlike China, Japanese automaker have to rely on export. But China, it has like 35 million cars sold in a year. It's a huge— it's the world's largest car market. Chinese car makers can just, you know, sell cars to the Chinese, but the Japanese and Koreans, they will have to export, you know, they, they eat the export market. So the, the, the, the, the Trump tariff is hitting them very hard, and, and that's why they're really strongly resisting right now. And yeah, same, same with Australia. I mean, like, they're getting hit with 50% tariff like beef and steel imports. And, and, and this is why, again, Australian Prime Minister is in China, because they also want to use their— not just hedging, but they also can leverage their relationship with China to, to, to tell United States, hey, you better back off or I'm gonna go with China. I have, I have alternatives, you know, I have people to go to. Um, don't pressure us too hard. Um, so, so this is a, a game of chess right now that's being, being played out in the, in the Western Pacific. And, and, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I, and, and Trump, you know, Trump, he plays checkers, you know. I don't, I don't think he, he will win this game. He, you know, he's Trump. I say Trump is my president. He's my president for accelerationism of of US Empire's decline. Everything he does is going to accelerate the decline of the US Empire.

And I'm all for sure.

And, uh, and, and, and right now, the, you know, this is why Japan right now is trying to, um, you know, trying, trying, trying to improve their ties with China. And so is Australia, because they, they understand when it comes down to it, their livelihoods still depend on trade with China, the most—

and I will add the European to that mix as well. Of course. So let me see, uh, just if there are any questions before I'll give you the last word, Carl. Uh, oh, Angie, uh, Rafflin, thank you so much for your Super Sticker. Truly appreciate your support for the channel. MRO Lavon, uh, thank you very much for your Super Sticker. And this is a question: are Chinese jet fighters arriving in Iran on a vehicle carrier ship?

Well, we, we don't have actually have confirmation of, uh, J-10C sale to Iran yet, but if when it does, yeah, they can just fly it. They can just fly it to you directly. There's nothing, nothing stop them to fly those jet fighters into Iran. Yeah, uh, you know, this— that's probably more likely. Yeah, because, because once on your— you're on the high seas, yeah, you know, you, you are exposing yourself to shenanigans of U.S. Navy. Like back in 1930— 1993, there was a Chinese ship Ying He carrying goods to Middle East, and it was intercepted by the U.S. Navy, uh, claiming their shipping chemical, like, weapon components to Iran. And, and the United States stranded the Chinese tanker by cutting off the GPS signal to them. So the, the ship were stranded on this high sea for like 20, 30 days. And in the end, China agreed to have the ship inspected at the port in Saudi Arabia by, by Saudi and American joint investigation team, and they found nothing. They found nothing. And then American blame China for it. They say, oh, this, this is a Chinese trap to, to make us look bad, to make the CIA look bad. But anyway, it's so ridiculous. And that actually was impetus for China to develop their alternative to the GPS system. That, that's, that's when China invested a lot of money to develop their Beidou system, uh, of navigation. And, uh, now, now I think Beidou has more satellites than the GPS.

So the possibility of those fighter jets just flying over— and by the way, I did get a word, uh, that there will be about 40, uh, fighter jets arriving to Iran by the end of the year. So that's the word I got. So, uh, I want to say thank you to Azwan Azmi. Thank you very much for your Super Sticker for the channel. And the last one is from BG. Thank you very much for your Super Sticker. How many migrants trying to get to China? Interesting.

Okay, so actually quite a lot, uh, you know, people don't realize this because, uh, Myanmar— Myanmar is in civil war right now. A lot of people in Myanmar would rather be in China. And, and, and, and they, they would very much like to, to, to work and live in China because, you know, just across the border, China is like this real oasis of calm, uh, whereas on the Myanmar side, there's still ongoing civil war, um, and that, that applies to, you know, other neighboring country as well, like Laos, um, and stuff. So, so those are the main source of migrants to China, you know, from its neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. People just— people, people just don't know this because this is never reported in the Western media, you know. Like, there's a, uh, and, and now there's also a lot of, uh, foreign spouses, uh, that's coming to settle in China because China do have this kind of gender imbalance, right? And, and one of the largest foreign source of foreign spouse into China is Vietnam. And so, yeah, there's a lot of people, there are a lot of Southeast Asian migrants that's trying to get to come to China right now.

And also one thing I am aware of, and I'll quickly share this with the community, a lot of academia here in the US are really considering, uh, teaching in China. I'm one of those, uh, down the road. But I'm talking about the, the, the, for example, the scientists, the professors of Chinese ethnicity. They are returning back, and we're talking about top scientists, top researchers in mathematics, in quantum computing, in physics, you name it. They are returning back to China. So, and I am aware even of some Americans Yeah, I'm aware of some Americans, and even non-ethnic— yeah, that is correct.

Even non-ethnic Chinese are now going to China because China is now the land of opportunity, you know, like, like the, the, the, the Chinese dream, you know, is what, what, where the American dream used to be.

That is correct. I couldn't agree more. So I'll give you the last word, uh, Carl, especially when it comes down We go back to the original, uh, theme of this conversation regarding China's statements that the US has no right to preach morality when it's actively supporting genocide in Gaza. Uh, last word for you regarding how do you see this on the global stage and the significance of the message it is sending.

I mean, that's, that's a positive sign that finally China is finally taking a stance, and, and China is not trying to shy away from at least verbal confrontation with United States. Um, you know, like, like traditionally Chinese diplomats has tried to like be very polite, very low-key, and, uh, try not to offend anybody. And, and now, now that, that age has passed. Now, now China is not shy to, uh, to voice his opinions. And especially when there's nothing to gain by being nice to US. You can never appease a bully, right? Like a schoolyard bully. If you try to appease the bully, the bully will just increase the bullying. So the way to do it, the way to deal with a bully, hit him in the nose. That's the most effective way to do it.

You're absolutely correct. Well, Carl, my friend, I can't thank you enough. On behalf of the entire community, we say thank you so much for really allocating this time for us to share your knowledge, your wisdom, your insights about a host of issues, uh, that really, uh, sort of, uh, a lot of, uh, people in the community would like to have the answers to. So we are very, very grateful. I am personally very thankful to you for having you here, and, uh, I look forward to our next session next month. You take care, my friend. Yeah.

Thank you, David.

My pleasure. My pleasure. Uh, guys, hope you enjoyed listening to Carl here as always. And, uh, remember, uh, to join me on either tomorrow or Sunday. I have not decided yet, uh, for my conversation with Dr. Stewart. He will be here to answer some of your health questions, and this is part of our community conversation. But in the meantime, I am going to be— and again, I didn't check my email yet, uh, to see for the confirmation of the topic of Iran. Uh, if, if I get the info, I'll get it. I'll do the live for you tomorrow. If I don't, then it will have to wait till next week. Uh, one, once again, appreciate your support for the channel. And I look forward to seeing you next time. As always, remember, geopolitics impact your daily life in more ways than one. Till next time, guys. Bye-bye.