Trump Lied: Americans Are Paying the Tariffs! Conversation w/Carl Zha

All right, hello everybody and welcome to Geopolitical Trends, where truth matters. Excited to be with you as always, even more excited because you guys know who is here, right? Somebody does not need an introduction. Let me bring him in here. Hey Carl!

Hi, how are you?

How you doing, man?

Good, good, good to see you. Great, how are you?

All I'm doing great. Excited to be with you here having this conversation, and we're going to be tackling a lot, a lot of topics here. So I'm going to get into it right away. So to all the community, welcome guys, and let's get in on conversation with Karl here. So Karl, I want to start with something that happened a few weeks ago, and I knew I was going to keep it in mind because I wanted to address it with you. You're aware of what took place between Pakistan and India regarding the clash. Uh, there are some who believe that India has learned the lesson, but I'm not going to talk about what got shut down and all that stuff. What I want to get your take on, Carl, is what was that all about? Was it something that was orchestrated by a third party and for what objective?

Well, the timing certainly is very interesting because, um, You know, I, I, we actually talk about this. India was just starting to move closer to China after US, Canada, everybody was ragging on them for supposedly assassinating US-Canadian citizens. And, and then, but really it's about India's continued purchase of Russian oil. And, and it's so because of that pressure, India was is having a soft approach moment with China where they're talking about coordinating trade. And then suddenly, um, the Trump tariff war happened and India kind of switched the other direction again. They went to— the Indian Commerce Minister announced, you know, they're gonna— that all the Chinese goods are crap and they're gonna put more restriction on Chinese importing into India, and their Indian trade delegation is going to Washington, um, declaring that they're going to lower tariff for the American goods, which was hailed by Trump as a great win. And then JD Vance traveled to India, you know. J— oh yeah, I'm not saying, I'm not saying JD Vance is a, is a grim reaper, but you know, like when he— you know what happened when he met the Pope, you know? Pope dies and then he goes to India and the cash, and the cash Kashmir attacks happen. It's just so— I mean, the timing is certainly interesting. And so because as a result of the Kashmir attack, now Indian government, they felt they have to do something, uh, because the Indian public is crying out for revenge. And, and India government immediately blames Pakistan for supporting terrorists, for carrying out terrorist activity in India. This is what led to the present conflict because they, uh, the, the Indian politician gave an order to the Indian Air Force to strike so-called terrorist camp inside Pakistan. Now, this is a, this is a purely political move because they, on one hand, they try to avoid an uncontrollable escalation. So they, they apparently told the Indian Air Force, do not strike Indian, uh, Pakistani military installation. At least on the first day. So they aim for non-military. Well, if you think about it, if their, if their target is non-military, wouldn't that mean they're civilian? But anyways, they, they, they claim, they claim they strike against the terrorist camp, but it's kind of foolhardy because Pakistan is not a country without air force and air defense. And it's, it's kind of foolhardy to think that you can do that without expecting retaliation from Pakistan. Pakistan. And the fact— the way they carry on is they telegraph their intent weeks advance, like, we're gonna do something, we're gonna do something, we're gonna strike Pakistan. So the Pakistan side were ready for them. The Pakistan Air Force and air defense system was on high alert for several days. The Pakistani Air Force was patrolling the border, and the Indian, uh, Air Force walked right into, uh the, the Pakistani Air Force that was ready for them. I mean, you can't, you can't even call it ambush because, you know, you announced to the world what you're gonna do, you know, and then, then of course the Pakistani Air Force is going to be ready for them. But it, it does introducing a new dynamic into BRICS because India is part of BRICS, and this is obviously not good for solidarity of BRICS members. Um, and this, this does work to advantage of United States, of course, because it, it made India pivot even harder toward United States, um, and, and away from China, and, and it kind of put a, put a stop to the kind of the soft India-China rapprochement that was, that was just beginning to take root. And, and so now, now we're seeing Uh, you know, the, the Indian side, they're, they're very butthurt about what happened. Um, yeah, most of them are still in denial about what happened because the, the, the Indian media is not telling them the truth. I mean, the, the, the Indian media has been going— I mean, they're painting an entirely bizarre world to their audience.

Yeah.

And this is increasingly obvious on social media because You know, all the, all the Western media including CNN, Reuters have all reported that it was confirmed that at least one French Rafale jet and at least two Indian fighter jets got shot down. But you still have Indian public asking, where's the proof? Where's the— I mean, like, these, these Reuters and, uh, CNN, they have no incentive to talk up, talk up Pakistan capability or the Chinese weapon system capability, right? And, and, and so we have a— we, we're, we're now at a point where, um, you know, like, like Indian government and Indian military will have to come to some hard realizations about their own capabilities, about, uh, you know, and then about their opponents. Pakistan. And, and for the wider, uh, military watchers of the world, I think it's, uh, this is— I, I saw some people call this a, a Deep Seek moment for the Chinese weapon system, because for the longest time there has been a lot of copiums about Chinese weapons. You know, people are saying, oh, it's made in China, so the quality must be not that good. I mean, you even have big publications like Wall Street Journal, New York Times reporting, you know, Chinese missiles are filled with water, you know. Well, yeah, no, we can confirm that, you know, those PL-15 Chinese air-to-air missiles, their warhead is probably not filled with water, you know, you know, unless you're trying to claim a warhead filled with water on one of the most advanced European fighter jets, right? I mean, that's, that's pretty impressive tech. Nevertheless, you know, China can use water-filled missiles downing French Rafale jets.

Which is true, which is true, Carl, because they were able to shut down Rafale jets. Actually, the Chinese FL-15 missiles. And this is why, in my opinion, I think what this conflict exposed is the credibility of the Chinese weapon on the global market. Later on, the cost— I mean, now everybody's wondering about Rafale, the Western fighter jets. They stood no chance against the Chinese missile, air-to-air missiles.

And one notable thing is that F-16 almost took, uh, you know, had very little role in this latest, uh, India-Pakistan fight. And this is because When United States sold its latest F-16 batch to Pakistan, they had the Pakistan government sign an end-user agreement which says these F-16s will not be used to fight India, which severely limits the utility of those F-16s. And, and, and whereas when China sold its J-10Cs, they're like, they're not putting restrictions on how they can be used. You know, you bought the weapon It's yours, it's your weapon, you can, you can use it however you like. And this is one, uh, aspect of US weapon sales, is that United States government always try to use weapon sale as a pressure point, try to shape other countries' foreign policy and even domestic policies. Um, and whereas China has always practiced a non-interference foreign policy, for, for them it's strictly business. And, and, and, and for, for You know, if you look at the price, you, you like it, you look at the price versus utility. India, just 10 days before the conflict, India announced, uh, a new plan to acquire additional 26 Rafale jets from France at $7.4 billion. If you look at, do the math, that's almost $284 million per plane. Of course, that included spare parts and training. But, you know, compare that to the, the, the Chinese J-10C, which has a unit cost of $40 to $50 million. So for each French Rafale jets, the price— you can get like 5 or 6 Chinese J-10Cs. And it's like, it's— the choice is obvious. I mean, especially for a lot of countries. Right? This is why now Egypt is in talks of acquiring J-10C, because for, for countries that look to diversify their military supplier, especially if they're worried that Washington might not come through and, or Washington might, um, restrict, uh, sales to them or have, have attached condition on how they can use those weapons, now there's a clear alternative, um, you know, at much, much, much cheaper price with proven battlefield, uh, uh, victories. And this, by the way, this was the first time a Rafale has saw, saw like combat, like, like against a peer, um, air force. And this was the first time Rafale was shot down. And, and this is also the first time, you know, J-10C, you know, had— was saw combat and he had his first kill. I mean, so the choice is clear, um, for most of the Global South countries. I think there will be a lot more weapon sales for J-10C going on forwards. I mean, that's why the stocks of Chengdu Aviation, the manufacturer that made J-10C, went up immediately after the event, uh, whereas the, the French, uh, manufacturer of Rafale, Dassault, their stock went down. And so, so it's obvious that for people who, at least people outside of India, they realize what's going on. The momentum is already shifting. Yeah, you know, this has been a tremendous year for China. You know, first they had, you know, the Red Note moment, then they have the Deepseek moment, and then now they have the J-10C moment. And, and one thing that the, the J-10C has a big leg— I mean, Rafale is a good, good jet, you know, I'm not trying to, trying to demean the, the capabilities, but Rafale has, uh The PL-15 air-to-air missile that brought down the Rafale jets, it has a very long range. Um, you know, the, the export version has about 140-kilometer range. The, the non-export version have about 300-kilometer range. And the— whereas the, the French Rafale, the only, only weapon system they have comparable is the Meteor, Meteor, uh, missile. But each Rafale can only carry 2 Meteor missiles. One J-10C can carry up to 10 PL-15 missiles. So even on an even fight, it's like the, the, uh, J-10C has 5 times the firepower, you know. So it's not, uh, I mean, this, this kind of, this kind of advantage is made more, even more clear now to potential customers of J-10C in the future.

Well, actually, I can confirm, uh, your statement, especially about Egypt, that the head of the Air Force of Egypt was in talks with the Chinese regarding some fighter jets, uh, which was usually here in Washington, it was kind of what the heck Egyptians are doing. I think they are looking into that dire— it's not I think, they are moving into that direction because they are realizing what took place, what's taking place in Ukraine, seeing the weapons, the Western weapons being decimated by the Russians, and of course the India-Pakistan conflict exposed, as you stated there. I want to just mention one more thing before we jump into some other topics here, still on the Pakistani-India conflict, you know, and this is my theory, Carl, and am I wrong? I might be wrong, am I not? But In any event, the way I'm thinking about it, how this came about had to do with undermining, uh, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Will I be right in that assessment?

So that— so for people who might not realize, uh, CPK, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, is actually the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative. China has invested tons into building infrastructure, uh, roads, ports in Pakistan. And the idea is, you know, they can eventually— there will be an energy corridor as well that will connect from Gwadar near the mouth of Persian Gulf and, and, and connects to pipe it to Western China in Xinjiang. So that way all these, uh, oil and gas tankers, they don't have to travel all the way across the Indian Ocean going through the Strait of Malacca, the potential choke point up South China Sea. They can just travel from Persian Gulf directly to Port of Gwadar, gets unloaded, you know, transported by pipeline to Western China. That, that's a long-term vision, right? This is part of the Chinese Stream of Pearl strategy— have so many connectivity points that United States Navy cannot be present at all place at all time. So there will be no singular choke point, uh, that instead they have to spread out fin if they want to choke off Chinese energy supply. Now, this, this move is— has been opposed by both United States and India. Now, India also do not want to see Pakistan's economy stabilize it because India— and there's a rivalry between India, Pakistan, you know, stretch all the way to the partition in 1947. And, and so, so both— this is one area where interest of India and Washington both are aligned. They want to see the CPEC project fail. They want to see the, uh, you know, they don't want to see the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor succeed. But having said that, I, I also observe, um, initially they, um, they want, you know, the, the India side did try to limit the try to limit the scope of escalation by avoiding to hit Pakistan, uh, military installation on the first day. Of course, that was a big mistake. That's why on the second day they launched their unmanned drones and missiles against the Pakistan Air Base. Um, but you know, that was more like a face-saving measure because they obviously got humiliated in the first day of aerial battle. They wanted to um, you know, they wanted to, to retaliate. And, and, and, and it— another thing it does— did interrupt is the idea that people can, can, can shift production. Multi— US multinational can just shift production from China to India because Tim Cook was just talking about shifting iPhone production to India. So India can make special iPhones for Americans, for, for United States. And now we have this happen, and now we also have Trump coming out saying, I don't want India to make iPhones, I want, I want them to bring production back to the United States. So again, this kind of puts India in a quandary, you know. First, yeah, people can see, okay, well, maybe it's India is not the best place to park our money and, and, and our investment if they, they can— there could be a big conflict touched off anytime. And at the same time, you know, now Trump himself is coming out against offshore. Yeah, yeah. So, so this whole, whole India operation backfired in a great way, in big ways. I mean, one way it showed that, uh, the deficiency in the India, uh, uh, offensive capability Uh, two, it demonstrated the, the superiority of the Chinese weapon system. And number three, it showed that India might not be the great place for investment for Western multinational looking, uh, to, to, to, uh, decouple from China. So, so all in all, you know, it was a great win for China. Um, yeah, and, and I think this is, uh, right now I think Indian politicians are still, um, they're still trying to— probably they're still trying to, trying to figure out what, what they can they learn from this and how do they move forward. Um, because this is just, uh, this, this event actually would have ripple effects down the road.

Indeed, indeed. Let's talk about, uh, really we're gonna be addressing— just for guys to give you an idea as to what we cover here, so I just wanted— I had in mind to ask Carl this question about India-Pakistan, because remember, it happened at the beginning, around the beginning of the month, and usually we meet at the end of the month. But nonetheless, I know it happened, but I want you guys to hear Carl's perspective on this one yourself. So regarding the tariffs, Carl, and as we know, Trump lies. And apparently the lies now are catching up to the point that Americans now are questioning and start to realize the guy has been lying all along to us. So I'm gonna play a clip and I want to get your feedback on this one here. So guys, take a listen here, please. Tariffs and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.

Walmart is in fact going to eat some of the tariffs.

So Walmart wasn't going to eat any tariffs. It's the American people that's going to end up paying the tariffs. What I want to get into, Carl, is that now we found out and the whole world knows that Trump's lies about the China tariffs have been exposed. How do you see China moving forward? Because China took a stand, and I am watching around the world. I'm seeing some other countries are kind of learning the lesson from the Chinese that if you push back against the Americans, against Trump, he might back down.

I mean, that's how you deal with bullies, you know. You don't back down in front of the bully, because if you, if you, if you back down, the bully will keep on pushing his advantage. Um, and this is why, um, the, the, you know, the Trump administration, particularly Trump's advisors, they miscalculated China's intentions and, and China's capability. You know, I, I believe Scott Bissell, they really thought that U.S. was the one that hold all the cards. The U.S., like he said, he said, oh, we are the consumers, as the end consumers, as a trade deficit nation. We have the upper hand because the Chinese need us, they need our money. But apparently China was like, okay, well, let's— it's time to move on then. And, and, and they— it's the United States that, that were— had to chase the Chinese to— for a deal. Um, because again, China had been preparing for this moment since 2018, since the first Trump term when Trump started slapping sanctions against China. So China had been prepared for 6 7 years for this moment, whereas the United States was not ready. And especially when, you know, majority of pharmaceutical components come from China, antibiotics, you know, medical plastics. If the trade war were allowed to continue, you know, there will be— we'll have, you know, more serious problem than just empty shelves. There's going to be hospitals will have to shut down. And, and again, this is, uh, this is, you know, we, we have talked about this, I believe, on our, on your show, that, you know, what, what would happen if China simply, you know, puts an embargo on United States and stops sending goods? Well, Trump helped us to find out. You know, Trump imposed a self-embargo, and, and what happened was if the they had— if they had let the trade war continue, yeah, there will be shortages. I mean, like, the fact that there hasn't been widespread shortages before they had to talk is because the U.S. consumer were, were buying off the inventories that the big business has stockpiled over, um, ever since the Trump election. They, they saw which way the wind was blowing, so all these business like Amazon and Walmart, they have been front-loading in anticipation of the tariff increase. And so people were still buying off like 5 to 7 days of inventory, but that was how tight it was. Like, after that 5 to 7 weeks, uh, I, I like— if the, if the trade war had continued, like, we would have short— same shortages in June and July. And this is why Washington were pressured to do the deal, to do the deal, and, and basically roll back everything, all the tariffs they placed on China since the April 2nd Liberation Day announcement. And because if they realize if they had let it run, it will be really, really bad. And, and, and, but even so, the price has already increased because all these big businesses like Walmart, uh Amazon, when they're frontloading, when they're buying all these goods from China, they have to store them in warehouses. And the additional warehouse fees, guess what happened? They get passed on to the consumer. So we're already seeing price increases. And, and guess what? Those, those businesses, once they increase the price, they're not coming back down. I'm sorry, even, even if the tariffs get dialed back, but those prices are not coming back down, folks. You're like, they never decrease prices. When they see our consumer will just take those prices, those prices will stay up. Um, and, and that introduced the element of inflation into the US economy. And, and, and another thing is big businesses like Walmart and, and Amazon, they can handle brief trade interruptions, you know, for like a couple months. Well, because they, they have the capability to stockpile.. But small to medium US businesses who have very thin margins and not— do not have too much inventory, they're the ones are getting wiped out. And this is a real effect of the Trump tariff war. It's wiping out tons of US small businesses that do import-export from China. And, and, and— but people, people, the, the, the, the, the, the— I think that the, the base, the Trump supporters, I think they would just have— they would still be misled by Trump no matter what, you know, because they still think this is a great Trump win. When you're like, what win? They basically rolled back all the tariffs since April 2nd on China. And how is— how is that— how is that winning? All these trade disruption for what? And by the way, the trade disrupt— the disruption in the supply chain, that's already baked in. Even after Trump had put the 90 days pause, now what happened is even, even if the, the, the Chinese supplier go back to the factory and say, okay, don't worry, we'll send you the goods still, and if they load the ship right now, yeah, it will take another 30 days to cross the Pacific to reach the US. And you know, and, and what happened is before there were very few ships coming to like Port of Los Angeles. And now there's tons of ships that are going to come to the Port of Los Angeles. That's not going to put another big pressure on these ports to handle this kind of new pulse of traffic, because all these ports, they were designed to handle smooth flow of international trade. They were not designed to handle this like big pulses. Yeah, so you're gonna have, you're gonna have big, I mean, uh, trade disruption nevertheless. This is going to be just like the back in the COVID days when, you know, when there was a sudden shortage, and then, then when the, the COVID restrictions were lifted, and suddenly there is a big rush to the US ports. So we are still going to look at increasing prices. I mean, there's still going to be inflation, unfortunately, and this is all self-inflicted. This is completely unnecessary. And all they have managed to do is to get Tim Cook to move some Apple, uh, iPhone production from China to India, you know, just like, just so Americans will get the Made in India iPhones. I mean, that, that's all he accomplished.

Yeah, but it's still, the prices of the iPhone are just so high. Anyway, so what do Americans getting for it? No, I think, I think Trump really, really, really been exposed now that he realized, uh, he was counting that Xi, President Xi, is going to give him a call and we can make an arrangements, whatever. That's why I've always said there was no deal. I mean, he lied about after the meeting in, in Geneva, yeah, in Geneva between the representatives of the US and China and claiming a victory. And I was like, what kind of victory are we talking about here? You've been exposed, man. You've been exposed.

And you're— and you're right, there's no deal. It's a pause. It's a 90-day pause. So, so what happens if there's a no deal after 90 days? Is the tariff going to go back? I mean, it's going to go back another 90%, another, another self-imposed embargo. You, you saw Trump, he just announced that he's, he's threatening to place 50% tariff on the EU. I mean, I mean, like, uh, that, that just remind people, oh, by the way, that, that whole tariff thing with China, that, that's not over yet. That's a 90-day pause, you know. What's going to happen in 90— the thing is, they introduce great tons of uncertainty to the market, into doing— into the market. And the businesses hate uncertainty because how can you plan? How can you plan out your businesses? That's true. If something is subject to change in 90 days, like let's say some businesses, they after the Liberation Day, whatever, April, they, they look for ways to start production in United States, right? And then suddenly there's a pause of— there's a pause of tariff. Like all their investment now looking like foolish. And you know, you businesses, they need stability to plan out for long-term investment. And Trump is kind of throwing that all to the wind just to win some, uh, I don't, I don't know. I mean, that was just stupid. That was just so stupid. And, and it's not over yet, folks. We're not out of the woods.

You're right, because here in the US nowadays, it's the consumers that are facing, are faced with that reality of the, uh, the rise in prices. And that means that's us who are paying the tariffs, is not foreign government. So, so I, I am certain that, you know, he's been exposed big time, big time. So, and we shall see how this, uh, moves forward. So now this leads me to ask a question, Carl, and this is from a bigger picture, just a bigger picture. And it's not just China specifically, it's just whomever, you know. Could this trade war lead to a real war, a hot war? Because again, I'm using history as my guide when I think about what took place with Japan back then. When we—

well, sometimes, uh, you, you gotta be, uh, a little skeptical, a little cynical, because yeah, like, why, why did they do this thing? Why did, why did they do this totally unnecessary terrible. But then you think about it, hey, Pentagon has been pushing for decoupling forever. You know, one of the arguments for Pentagon's decoupling from China is that, you know, the, the, the, the inter— the economic, uh, relationship with China is too intertwined. That if a conflict does break out between U.S. and China over Taiwan, there would be a huge blowback against the U.S. economy. So they say Well, the best thing then, of course, is to cut off trade so you make easier for us to go to war with China. And, and, and sometimes you got to think maybe it's a stress test, you know. Maybe this whole month of trade disruption is really just a stress test. They want to see how much pain American consumers can take, you know, before stopping at the brink. And, and based on what I have seen now, I'm even more confident there will be less likely possibility of a real war. Uh, you know, I post about this on Twitter, it roiled a lot of feathers. I said, you know, I, I, based on what I've seen in the trade war, I don't think there will be a hot war because U.S. has neither the balls nor the means to fight a hot war with China. You know, because has no means, because they— what are they gonna do when United States literally depend on China to supply its daily goods. And, and we, we saw, we saw kind of the panic that was setting in when people are realizing, oh crap, you know, there's going to be shortages. And, and, and the— yeah, I mean, like, China can— they are the producer. They, they can still put— like, in times of war, United States is not even going to be able to replace all the military hardware that's going to be lost in the initial round of the battle. China, on the other hand, they have, they have, they have 200 times the naval, the shipbuilding capability, uh, than United States. They can easily replace what they lost. And right now, even the Pentagon has given up on manufacturing in the United States because now, now, you know, it's openly talked about in mainstream media. Pentagon is trying to girt around the legislation that forbade, uh, United States from purchase warship from, from, from foreign suppliers. Now, now they're trying to get U.S. warship to be retrofitted in Korean and Japanese and maybe even Turkish shipyard because it will be much cheaper. So, so Pentagon already gave up on manufacturing America, like the hollowing out of the manufacturing sector in the U.S. Is now reaching a point it's starting to affecting the military-industrial complex. So, so they need help from South Korea and Japan to help the naval buildup versus China, because China just has 200 times the shipbuilding capabilities of the United States. US only has 3 shipyards. They cannot match that kind of capability, manufacturing capability. Um, and this is why, um, first of all, the impetus for war will not have come from China because as we have seen, you know, China, they're gonna rolling out their 6th generation fighters probably around 2030. So why, why, why, why, why do they need to rush it, you know, at 2027 like Pentagon was saying? 2027 is really the Pentagon schedule. That's not the Chinese schedule. Time is on China's side, that the more time they wait, the more relative strength China will have vis-à-vis United States. It's the US, that's Pentagon, that's realizing now they have a very short, limited time, shrinking time window to contain China, because by, by, um, as time moves on, there, there, they will have less capability vis-à-vis China. And this is why I don't think, uh, a direct hot war, kinetic war, is, is likely. But I think what would be likely is proxy wars. United— this is what US excels at, you know, try to start these proxy wars on the periphery, um, to, to, you know, like, like, like what happened in the Cold War. There was no direct war between Soviet Union and United States, but many, many proxy wars were fought all over the globe, particularly in the global, global South countries, you know. Um, I mean, in Asia, that, that was why United States went to Vietnam, went to, went to Korea. And, and I think, uh, this is why US is trying to stir up trouble in the South China Sea using the Philippines, Marcos regime. And, and, but we're already seeing, you know, Bongbong Marcos' popularity just nosedive, you know, in the Philippines. It looks like Duterte's daughter is gonna win. They're like, her, her, um, a lot of her supporters are now winning in the Philippine, uh, election, in the Senate.

Yes, they did take majority seats.

Yeah, yeah. So I was right.

Yeah, I was following that one closely, Carl. And I— it gave me a hint as to the Filipinos now don't want Marcos anymore because he's dragging the country to do the bidding for the US in South China Sea.

So yeah, when— what Philippines really need is more investment, more infrastructure, which China could help with, you know. That was Duterte's foreign policy toward China. He was— he was having, you know, doing, doing a rapprochement with China to get more investment into the Philippines, which Marcos had put a stop to that. And, you know, so, so now, um, but even so, even, even, even so, with all these, uh, shenanigans, you can still buy BYD Seagull for the most affordable EV in the world in the Philippines, and you cannot get that in United States and Canada, for sure. Like, like, uh, you know, like they— I think Sego, the— now they're selling the Sego in, in the Philippines for like $16,000, you know, for a very affordable electric car. You know, it's cheaper than gas car, but it's still, still not available in United States. Well, because, because, you know, Philippines being in Southeast Asia, like, yeah, like the rest of the Southeast Asian countries are being pulled by the gravitational pull of the Chinese economy. This is why Xi Jinping's first trip Rather than taking the call, calling Donald Trump at the White House, Xi Jinping just traveled to Southeast Asia. He went to Vietnam, went to Malaysia, because that's where the future is. That's where, um, China's supply chain is expanding to. Uh, Trump just— Trump administration just announced another, um, uh, sanction. Well, they just announced anybody who would buy using Huawei AI chips, AI chips, yes. Will be faced with US sanction. It will be considered a violation of US export control. That applies globally. So that— so what that means is even a Chinese company, if a Chinese company uses Huawei AI chips to train Deepseek in China, they will be subject to US export control, and they will be placed on US entity list and be blacklisted and, and, and get US sanction. So this is a global sanction. It's not like a— and this is a— but, but, but interestingly, Malaysia, Malaysia just announced that they're gonna start hosting a data center using Huawei chips to, to— yes, to, to, to, to host their AI data center. So this is going to be interesting. Like, like Malaysia has already very clearly took a stance, you know, showing their position. They, they already real— they're already demonstrating that their future lies with China. Um, this is why Kishore Mohbani, the former Singaporean diplomat, had repeatedly tell Washington, please don't make us choose. The Southeast Asian country really do not want to have to choose between U.S. and China. And what he's really saying, yeah, you're right, it's like you, you will not like the choice we make if we're forced to make that decision, because we're gonna choose China, you know. Like, you're not gonna like that. And but Washington keep pushing. Like, the, the Southeast Asian nation, they rather trade with both nations, both United States and China. But, but when push comes to shove, they will choose China, hands down, because for sure their development relies on China, whereas United States is not offering any kind of alternative in terms of, you know, building these countries' infrastructure or investment, anything like that.

Well, you're absolutely correct, Carl, because, uh, uh, and, and this is not a, uh, uh, is jokingly per se. Now we're going to be seeing a call for democracy in Malaysia and human rights and so forth because that's what we do. No, on a serious note, uh, it's, it's—

that's, that's what Trump said, uh, at the West Point, uh, graduation ceremony. He said Oh, the, the, the job for the US military is not to, uh, stage trans shows. I don't know how many trans shows US military stage, but it's not stage trans shows or, or transform foreign culture. Is to, to export democracy at point of a gun. I'm like, wait, what? I thought you move away from that. But, but yeah, like, the great thing about Trump is he says those things like he says those quiet things aloud, you know, he voices quiet thoughts aloud. So everybody saw, think, okay, this is what US is really about, you know, like this is really about exporting quote-unquote democracy at point of a gun.

Well, even one ahead and issue a statement about threatening other countries if they ever threaten the US. Why would other countries threaten the US for? And I think to me it starts to feel like Trump is sort of reflecting the sense of how the world is moving away without the United States. So that's the way I see it. So if you want to create a path for yourself through this means, that means nobody wants to deal with you. So, and this brings me back to your point earlier about trying to contain China. I've argued for so long, Carl, that is too late. For the United States to contain China. China is and was not the Soviet Union. The conditions of today's reality, the geopolitical realities when it comes down to China are very different from what it was during the era of the Soviet Union. And this is why I believe that, and I literally made this clear when I was still in Washington, that the idea of containing China is, is not going to work. Simple as that.

So David, the thing is, they're still fighting the last war. They think, okay, we remember how the Cold War went down, oh, when we won, Soviet collapsed, let's just bring that back versus China. But they don't realize the balance of power has shifted. Shifted. Now if they want to like put trade restriction on China, create a separate block, you know, like a China center block and US center block, guess what? The US-centered bloc is going to more look like the Soviet bloc in the Cold War 1.2. It will be a much smaller collection of economies versus, you know, China, which do business with the rest of the world. And, and you're— it's not going to be China that loses in that, in that competition. It's going to be United States. And, and the problem is that right now the, the leading Washington have their head stuck so far up their ass they can't see it.

Yeah, they don't want to see it. It's the truth, but they don't want to see it. So I want to go back to one particular point, Carl, about Taiwan, uh, because you mentioned about South China Sea and so forth. Just to— while I'm thinking about it, why? Because I read the statements by the Taiwanese governor. I call him governor, I don't call him president, because I don't recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state. So I've always— it's on a record, I have nothing against the guy, of course, but I just perceive him as a governor. So the governor of Taiwan, he said that I am offering peace to China, but I must strengthen defenses. So this is what, uh, uh, Lei Chai-te stated. So makes me just wonder what was behind that statement.

Well, I mean, right now it's, uh, it's non sequitur because China has always said that they're open to talks, but the condition is that both sides need to, uh, come to the, come to the table with the recognition that there's only one China. And, and, and, and you will have to acknowledge that. And that, that there's a, there's a, a so-called '92 Consensus. This is when representatives from mainland China and Taiwan met Singapore back in 1992, and they came to one consensus, like, okay, we both agree there's one China, but we allow for different expression what we think that one China should be. Where mainland China think one China should be People's Republic of China, and in Taiwan they think it means Republic of China. But at least that's a framework where both side can, can agree on there's only one China. So that, that— but, but what Lai Chin de administration that came to power denouncing that agreement, denouncing '92 consensus. So unless he goes back, unless he do a 180 switch from his party's position, because his party's platform officially is still Taiwan independence, you know, like, but, but now he's, he's kind of wiggling out by saying, oh, Taiwan is already because the Republic of China is already an independent country, so we don't have to declare independence. Um, but, but, but to really have a talk with China, they will actually have to acknowledge there's only one China. I think— I, I, I don't think, uh, he's at that step yet. So, so, so all these, uh, gestures that he's saying he's ready for talk with China, I think that's more of smokescreen. Uh, because the talk won't happen until he acknowledged the '92 consensus, there's only one China, and then, you know, everything is up, up for talks. And, and, and, uh, but, but I think maybe one of the things, maybe what he saw, he saw the result of the Indian-Pakistan conflict. He saw the lesson because the, the, the, the The best jets the Taiwan have now is F-16s.

And oh, it's a relic of the past. Yeah, that one, Carl, stands no chance against the J-10 or the J-36, the Chinese 6th generation.

Yeah, so they're not— they're— so maybe, you know, or maybe he saw what's happening in Ukraine, you know, that's really a more stark example. Um, uh, but I— but right now they're still— he's still following like the program of trying to, uh, you know, there's a so-called porcupine strategy advised by US advisors, make Taiwan like bristles with weapon systems. This is why I have a friend, uh, Shangyu, he's in Taiwan right now. He, he served as his, um, kind of like compulsory service because he was already like, uh, like, he's, he's a late 20s or early 30s. So instead of doing like military service, he did like a, a community service, a fireman. But now he's been recalled back to do firearm training, and he said like, this is a new, new thing. They, they— now the Taiwan government is trying to make people to, um, go back and do firearm training. And, and, and people are actually not a great fan of that because they felt, okay, we, we have already done our time, we have already done our service, why do we need to do this? And, and I think that's what he's talking about. He's like, we still need to arm ourselves. Um, you know, on, on one hand, that's also to please Washington because like Washington had been screaming for, especially in the recent years, about how Taiwan has not done enough to defend itself. Uh, you need to buy more weapons from us. You need to buy more U.S. weapon platforms. Um, and, and, and, and so they, they have to go through the motions of, um, like increasing the military service. Like when the DPP, uh, Lai Chin-tzu's party came to the platform, you know, one thing the promise was to reduce the, the amount of time people have to serve in the compulsory military service. You know, they cut down from like, uh, because they cut— at one point they cut down, I think, to 4 months, which is a joke. You can't, you can't get anything done in 4 months. But so now, now they're reversing that, uh, reversing that policy. They now extend it back to 1 year. Um, and now they're making the people who even have done their training, uh, time to go back and to do like a refresher course, a firearm refresher course. Uh, but it's not very popular because a lot of people feel like Why am I wasting my time? You know, why, why, why you— why are you wasting my time? Um, and, and the, the, then he's— there's actually recent protest, like huge popular protest against the Taiwan government attended by like 300,000 people, and there's barely any reporting in the English language media because that just doesn't fit the narrative, right? Because the narrative is like We're protecting Taiwan, the, the tiny plucky democracy against the big bad China, right? But then why are, why are these people protesting the government in Taiwan that we support? Uh, you know, like that people just would not compute, right? So, so they just decide to completely ignore it. All these protests, you barely know any. You would not even know there's big protests in Taiwan right now against its government, uh, you know, unless you read Chinese in the Chinese language media. Uh, you know, like, that's a, that's, uh, uh, but, but the reality is Lai Chin-Te now is just very unpopular. He's just like Marcos in the Philippines right now. He's not very popular. Um, and, and we're gonna have to see how the election shape up in the, in the next round of the Taiwan election, uh, if he keeps, keeps going, what keeps doing what he's doing.

Yeah, I was made aware of that, uh, those demonstrations, Carl. Through an email, and I shared it with the community. So I did bring it up, and I, I did mention how interesting that Western media is not addressing this. I was in Taiwan physically last year, so I kind of saw with my own eyes, and kind of like, no, they're not going to cover, they're not going to address that one. So it would be interesting to see. So let's move on to one thing I want to get your take on before I'll jump on to two more other key topics that I have to have. Your insights about. One of them has to do with President Xi Jinping's recent trip to Indonesia. Now, what do you make out of that? It's because, remember, the last trip went to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia, right? And remember, I asked you the question, Carl. I said, why not Indonesia? Well, I didn't know at that time that apparently Beijing was thinking in terms of a separate trip to Indonesia. Why is that, in your opinion?

Yeah, I mean, Indonesia is always going to be on the table because Indonesia is, is the largest country in ASEAN. It's, uh, it's the fourth most populous, uh, country in the world. Um, and so, so, so I, I like— I, I still stand by my theory, uh, when I talked to you last time that, yeah, Beijing was trying to give breather room to the Indonesian government when they're trying to negotiate a trade deal in Washington. Because Indonesia is one of the, uh, first countries that sent their trade negotiation to Washington. And that's when, you know, they, they, they were told like how the Indian QR code system, uh, for mobile payment, it was unacceptable because it's so only friendly to local Indonesian vendors but not friendly to big US companies like MasterCard and Visa, you know, has nothing to do with bringing manufacturing back home to United States. It's all about like financial domination. And, uh, and so, so now, you know, you know, China is visiting Indonesia because, you know, China is not ignoring Indonesia. Indonesia is too big, too important to be ignored. Um, and there's a lot of, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, lot of Chinese investment right now in Indonesian economy, um, in Indonesian infrastructure. Uh, more Chinese EV makers are coming to Indonesia. BYD is still building their factories here. Um, that's due to open next year.

And you're still gonna get— are you still gonna get the car, uh, uh, uh, car by the end?

I already— I, I couldn't wait. I mean, I, I wanted to wait for the BYD But I can't wait because I have to drop my kids at school and it's just not safe on a scooter. So I bite the bullet and I bought a GM car, David, but GM joint venture in China. It's a Wuling. It's a Wuling Bingle. Wuling is actually the best-selling GM brand in China right now. I think GM has a 34% stake. GM owns 34% of the Wuling. But it's an electric car. I bought an electric Wuling Bingguo and it's great. I mean, so far my wife love it. Whatever keeps my wife happy.

Very important.

Personally, I would rather wait a few more months because now BYD just announced they're bringing over Seagull in June and July next month. But I mean, like, it's okay. I mean, like, I probably still, uh, got better because, uh, um, when— because Wuling, they also have their own factories in Indonesia. So when I bought the car, I got the Indonesian government discount, like, uh, almost $5,000, uh, discount for buying cars made in Indonesia. Um, so, so, you know, I got, I got that $5,000 discount. So, so, like, I mean, like whereas, um, BYD, their factory is not ready yet. So, so they will not be able to get that discount until next year, until their, their factories start producing. So, you know, I mean, my wife's like, hey, we can always get another car a few years down the road. I'm like, yeah, that's true, because by then they will have better features then, you know, probably much, much better features, much better software. So, okay, well, I'll just wait, wait, uh, you know Wait for a few more years before I get my dream car.

Well, speaking of that, speaking of that one, Carl, regarding future and so forth, here is what happened. An American researcher, you know, you know what he stated in an argument, is that Beijing will dominate the world in the future and Washington will have no solace. And you know what brought this up? It was this picture right here. Check this out, this one with the automation of the AI involvement into all this. So maybe by the time you wait for the new car, BYD will have some very advanced features in that car that you can't find anywhere else in the world. They already— I heard that they are using— the BYD is using certain chip technology from Huawei. That has been embedded into— am I correct in this, Carl?

So, um, uh, I, I'm not sure if it's BYD. Like, Huawei, they have their own cars actually. They, they also work with a bunch of Chinese, uh, automaker like automotive. Automotive, uh, is, uh, is actually from my hometown of Chongqing. They partner with, uh, with Huawei. Uh, you know, their cars will use Huawei software.

Store.

And Huawei have their own cars as well. Like, I would— I was telling you, when I was in Shanghai, I walk into a Huawei store, like, once half of the store is like Huawei phones and laptops, the other half of the store is like Huawei cars. You know, the cars I've never seen before, and they're all very nice. And, you know, there are tons of— and they're cheap in China. Like, like $20,000, $24,000 USD in China can buy you a very premium luxury one, like very luxury feel. Yeah, very luxury. And, and, but once they leave China, the price goes up. Like, like the, the Wuling Bingguo that I bought in China, it sells for like $12,000. Um, here I bought it after discount, after discount, I paid $20,000. So like $8,000 more than what the consumer would pay in China. Um, and so, you know, the Chinese consumer are getting spoiled. But now, uh, BYD, they are gonna, um, all the Chinese manufacturers actually, BYD, Geely, they're all gonna have a big push to do export because the competition inside China is getting too intense. You know, they have a lot of price cutting inside China to undercut each other. So now they're trying to export more of their cars abroad, which would be great for the global consumers. And they have, um, and they, they are, I mean, they're definitely going to have much better features in coming years. Like one of the Chinese battery makers, CATL, they already announced they're, um, they're developing the solid-state battery and also sodium, sodium batteries. So which will make batteries much, much, much cheaper. And the biggest cost of electric car is actually in the batteries. So if they, they drastically reduce the cost of the batteries, that's going to bring the, the price down. I think in a couple years, like, electric cars gonna cost less than ICE cars. I, I, I firmly believe that. Like, I mean, that's already the case, uh, starting to be the case in China, but globally, I think in a couple years we're going to see electric cars be cheaper than, than gas cars. And, and so far I'm pretty happy with my Wuling Bingle. I, I, um, because my— I just had the, uh, home charging installed, uh, but, but the elect— I have to wait for the electric company to come to, to hook it up. So in the meantime, I get charged for free at the Wuling dealership. So I haven't paid anything for operating my car for last, uh, like I had the car for like almost, almost a month now, you know, like no, no, no, no, no expenses, no operating expenses.

Great. Liking this video so far? Don't just be a watcher, go ahead and hit the like, share, and subscribe button, and don't forget to tap the bell so you will not miss any of my videos or live streams. This way you will be supporting a channel that stands for the truth and objective reporting. The choice is yours. Thanks for your support. We are at the last segment here, Carl, and I can't let you go without getting your opinion about what took place between China and Colombia regarding the BRI that Colombia now joined officially per se. How is this going to now transform, if I may use the term, transform Latin America's relations with China, and also is going to impact the US sort of relations with Latin America?

Well, I did a Twitter post on this. I say, you know, the Monroe Doctrine is over. Because Colombia— Colombia is one country in Latin America that has traditionally the closest ally of the United States, right? Like all the US war on drugs and all that, that's, that's all happening in Colombia. And, and you— the US traditionally very tight with the Colombian military, um, and, and basically making them go after all the leftist guerrillas and stuff. So Colombia is now at the point where they're ready, they're ready to diversify their relationship, to have a close strategic partnership with China. This is huge. Um, you know, Colombia is a very populous country in— I mean, right now, majority of Latin American countries already doing trade with China, and they, you know, right now you can get BYD Seagull in Costa Rica. Guys. You can get like all these Chinese EVs in Costa Rica, but you will not be able to get it in United States. Sorry. But, uh, and, and, and the, and vast majority of the, the Latin American country, and they have, uh, they have more positive views with China and, and their relationship with China than, than with United States. And this is what makes a lot of people in Washington, particularly the likes of Marco Rubio, very uneasy because they always say, we're the champion of democracy and freedom, right? And then it turns out they're not very popular in Latin America because the Latin Americans have suffered all this US arrogance for so long. And now they have a clear alternative. Um, you know, U.S. is not the only model for development anymore, and, and, and China have showed that they can— they provide real alternatives by providing investment, by providing infrastructure. Um, everybody wants that. Um, everybody wants investment in, in their infrastructure. Um, and that's something that U.S. is finding increasingly difficult to compete with. Because only thing U.S. can offer is weapons, weapons and military bases. And, yeah, and, and this is why, um, the Trump tariff— going back to the Trump tariff— Trump tariff, what it has really shown, it was China that's emerging as a global leader. And, and China is— China, the resident United States, is the independent indispensable nation. You know, the, the country that makes things rather than, uh, just a country that, that buy things with paper IOUs. Um, and, and, you know, like, people can always— the conceit in, in United States is that, oh, they need us to buy their goods. No, like, they can buy their own goods. Like, people in the Global South, they have a demand for goods too. Um, you know, and China made that possible. People. Uh, like, like I, I pointed out before, China had made smartphone affordable to the global majority, and, and now, now they're gonna— you know, Washington called that deflation, China exporting deflation. But what actually happened is China is actually enabling the global consumer culture by, by providing affordable goods, um, and, and that will continue.

Well, that's why we are witnessing, for example, the, uh, the Chansey Port in Peru and how that's gonna now increase the, the, the, the, uh, the transfer of goods, commodities, and so forth between Latin America and China and the rest of the world for that matter, for those who are interested. Now, the one thing that the US end up doing following this agreement between Colombia and the US— and China, I'm sorry— is that we have forced Panama to agree to allow US fighter jets in, uh, in, on the Panama. I was like, what the heck are we doing there with the fighter jets?

You know, just didn't make sense. I mean, that's just another example. Only thing US can offer is military base and, and weapons. And, and this is why they're trying to reassert the control of Panama Canal. And, and, and by the way, the, the Panama Canal deal was vetoed by the Chinese government. The US— the China— Chinese government put their foot down and telling the, the, the owner of this, um, of the, uh, Hutchinson, uh, which owns— operate those two ports, and no, no, no, you can't sell to BlackRock. Sorry, we, we, we disapprove. And so the deal is off. But, but the reason why US want to control the Panama Canal is, you know, again, they, they want to have a veto over Chinese trade with Latin America. You know, they, they're not happy with the way the direction things are going. But China says no, no, no, sorry BlackRock, you can't, you can't have those ports. We vetoed it. Um, so this might be another military hardware into Panama right now to, you know, apply further pressure. Um, we're gonna have to see how, how that works out. Uh, it's, uh, but again, I, I don't, I don't think that will work out in the long term. Um, you know, in the long term, people still want development. That's, that's, that's what everybody wants.

That is true, that is true. Uh, let me say thank you to some of the supporters here. Noel, thank you so much for your Super Sticker, and thank you to Carl. Well, thanks for him being here with us. Thank you for that, appreciate it. Rafael, you wrote, thank you as always for your continued support, man, truly appreciate you for that. Malaysia is going to replace India in BRICS. Yeah, it makes sense to me. I never—

there's already Indonesia. There's already Indonesia for the I.

On a serious note, Carl, I never believe that India is a good fit for BRICS. I could be wrong, but that's how I've always thought.

Well, I think the inclusion of India is, you know, you rather have India on your side than working with Washington, right? Even though I think they understand India is kind of trying to perch on the fence, trying to get the most deal out of both sides. But still, it's better to have, uh, to keep them close, to keep the India close. So, so you, you're aware of what's going on, right? Right. Then, then have them in the opposite camp completely. Yeah.

Uh, once again, Rafael, once again, thank you so much for your kind support. And yes, China will go to war with the West because unlike Russia where Putin is making decisions, China is following blueprint led by Mao. Very, very interesting statements. Uh, do you see this happening, Carl?

Well, I, I mean, depending what you mean by war, right? I mean, like, yeah, like right now China is already upending the Western-dominated world order. This is what those people upset those people in Washington because, uh, you know, they, they have seen the, the Western dominance of the, the world being, being, uh, eroded away. Um, and, and, and China is leading, um, is, is leading that change. But I— China is not looking for a, a, a, uh, a big catastrophic, you know, kinetic war against United States that could, could end civilization. No, you know, if anything, China doesn't— does— this is a serious misunderstanding. China is— does not even want to destroy the US. China actually want US to do well so it can continue to participate in the global trade system, because war is bad for business. China is all about business. China hates insta— The one thing that China hates is instability. China does not like war, uh, and, and, and, and, and if US collapses, that's actually pretty terrible for, um, for, for, for, for the global peace and stability because, uh, you know, that, that, that would be a major disruption to the global trading system. China do not want that. China actually do not want to see US fail. It's this thing that people in Washington don't understand because people in Washington keep on shooting themselves in the foot. Donald Trump is doing more damage to United States than China ever could. Um, so, you know, this is, uh, why we, we have that meme where CIA just uncovered the secret Chinese plot to sit back and watch United States decline. I remember All the problem— almost all the problem US Empire faces today is self-inflicted. China didn't have to do anything. This is why, you know, we have that meme, China do nothing and win, because China's goal is not to destroy United States. China's goal is to, to, to work on itself, to provide prosperity for its people, and in doing so, you also realize it can do better for Chinese people but also other people by building up global interconnectivity, by building global infrastructure. You know, that's what China is good at. Um, and if given the chance, I'm sure China would love to invest in United States, uh, you know, build EV factories here, you know, investing the— in the high-speed rail there. But it's the United States that's resisting that future.

We want to want that.

That's—

yeah, that's true.

That's where we are.

That is true. Uh, AFU, thank you so much for your super sticker as always, and your support rather. Uh, United Asia SAE, thank you. Southeast Asia, thank you so much for your super, uh, sticker. Rafael, you have another one in which you made the correction. I was wrong. Yes, I could tell, Rafael, you meant Indonesia, not Malaysia. You meant Indonesia is going to place, India. So I say, you got it, you got it, Rafael. So, so, and I knew, I knew Rafael because he was— I said, I'm sure he was thinking in this term. So because, uh, Indonesia will make more sense into that. So, well, Carl, I, I'm gonna give you a last word, Carl. And the last word I wanna— I want you please to highlight for my community and for viewers from around the world is how do you see now Now that Trump's sort of bullying tactics, lies, and all that is exposed, and you all— we also seeing how China took stand, and taking that stand is giving like, it's giving like more courage, you know, to some other countries to say, you know what, we're gonna push back. And what would you say to us American consumers given what's going on?

Well, Trump is a great uniter of Eurasia right now. I mean, Trump is making China, South Korea, and Japan sitting at the same table agreeing to a, a trade deal. By the way, China just signed another deal with ASEAN for the ASEAN plus China free trade zone. This is a trade zone with 2 billion people because China has 1.4 billion people. Southeast Asia have 680 million people altogether. That's more than 2 billion people. This, this is huge. And China is already working with, like, uh, uh, EU actually representative, including von der Leyen, actually will be in China next month, and they will be talking about removing mutual trade restrictions, you know, like, so, so hopefully after July, you know, you, you'll be able to buy BYDs at much cheaper price in Europe because right now you still have to pay like 30— like a 38% tariff because any, any, any cars, uh, export to Europe, they have to pay 10%, but it's, uh, they— the Europe slap another 28% on Chinese EVs on top of that. So, so BYD, current BYD export to Europe, uh, they're, they're a little bit— they're, they're they're almost like triple the price what they have, uh, cost in China because of those tariffs. Uh, but hopefully after the, the talks, those restrictions will be removed. But again, this is all because of Trump. It's Trump that bring everybody together. Trump, the great peacemaker, you know. I call him my president for accelerationism. Interesting.

Uh, I got two more, uh, individuals here with a super sticker. I have to say thank you to our members in, in the community here. Kevin Baptist, much appreciate your kind support as always. You wrote, whether China wants it or not, war has been declared. So sort of from what the US, in terms of what they are thinking.

Yeah, US always push for that, you know. US, for sure, always kind of push for, for war. But, uh, the, the, the The, the capability— one thing I agree with Mearsheimer is he's talking about, okay, intention doesn't matter, it's about capability, right? You know what, the capability of United States to do mischief is getting eroded year after year after year because, you know, as US continue to lose its manufacturing base. So, you know, like, as the time goes on US will have less— it will be less capable. So we can look for— all look forward to that.

That's true. One more Super Sticker once again from Rafael. Uh, by the way, Carla, Rafael is an avid supporter of the channel, so it's been, it's been so generous with the channel. So thank you so much, Rafael. You wrote, China will not let what happened to the two cities in Japan happens to them. I couldn't agree more.

That's why China have nuclear weapons. That's why China developed nuclear weapons back in the '60s. Yeah.

And, and they will not hesitate to use them if their sovereignty is threatened. I have no doubt about that. So what, China will be one of those, uh— well, guys, I hope you enjoyed listening to Carl here. Uh, Carl, on behalf of the entire community, we say thank you again for really carving out time for us here. And I look forward to seeing you next time. As always, greatly appreciate you being here.

Thank you.

You take care, my friend. Hi guys, hope you all enjoyed it. Uh, once again, we are very excited always to have Carl here. He's, he's a wealth of information, and it was kind enough for him to— because I reached out to him, uh, to see if he can make it, and he was, it was gracious enough to, uh, grant us this time to share his knowledge. So As always, remember, geopolitics impacts your daily life in more ways than one. Enjoy your weekend, and I'll see you next week. Take care, guys. Bye-bye.