Daily News and Analysis.
We keep you informed and inspired.
This is World Today.
Hello and welcome to World Today.
I'm Dinh Heng in Beijing.
Coming up, President Xi Jinping calls on China and Central Asian countries to promote high -quality belt -and -a -road cooperation.
China has unveiled eight major financial opening -up measures at the ongoing 2025 Luljacui Forum held in Shanghai.
The European Union and Australia have agreed to negotiate security and defense partnerships.
And in Canada, a provincial leader is calling on his country to spell out a clear strategy for dealing with China.
To listen to this episode again or to catch up on previous episodes, you can download our podcast by searching world today.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has caught on China and Central Asia to promote high -quality Belt and Road cooperation.
The top Chinese leader made a remark in a keynote speech at the Second China Central Asia summit in Astana.
President Xi Jinping said China and Central Asian countries have forged a spirit of mutual respect, mutual trust, mutual benefit, and mutual assistance.
He also held separate meetings with his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
The leaders signed the Astana declaration and a treaty regarding friendship and cooperation.
The meeting also announced the signing of twelve agreements covering Belt and Road cooperation, personnel exchange, trade, connectivity, and much more.
And China is going to host the third China Central Asia Summit in the year 2027.
For more, joining us now underline is Dr. Zhang Xin, Deputy Director of the Center for Russian Studies, East China, Normal University.
Thank you very much for joining us today.
First of all, why do you think China and Central Asia can, as President Xi Jinping said, can forge mutual trust, mutual respect, mutual benefits, and mutual assistance?
There is a historical precedent for a relatively peaceful intercultural interaction between today's China and this area today called Central Asia.
This is in Chinese, an area we used to call Xi Yu, Western region.
But it's historical, they are ups and downs but overall, this is a symbol of Silk Road, Asian Silk Road, culture, intercultural interaction.
So that lays down some historical foundation for today's bilateral relation of the mutual respect and mutual trust. But I think what more important is the practice over the past three strong decades, particularly since these five Central Asian countries gained independence since the early 1990s through these more than three decades of practice on both Central Asian side and China side.
I think it's a very clear realization only through cooperation viewed on mutual respect and mutual trust. Can we gain both peaceful and prosperous Central Asia as well as China?
So I think the practice in the past three decades has convinced us this is the only way to go.
And also in multiple policy spheres, we already see some fruitful achievements in economic collaboration, especially in trade.
But I think more and more central country China move on and even expanded sphere of collaboration or multiple policies spheres.
So I think this practice just convince everyone this is the only way to go.
So more specifically speaking, how do you think China center Asia cooperation have developed since the first summit in Xi 'an, China two years ago?
I think the first major significant outcome from the previous summit, the first summit of this kind, left a very strong, I would say, long -lasting influence is that the set up of the first summit in Xi 'an really showcased both the willingness and commitment of China in the five Central Asian countries to forge a relation that's genuinely built on particularly mutual respect and mutual trust. The five Central Asian countries are different sizes, different economic scale and a political influence.
Some are more resourceful, some are much less.
Some are much more popular, some are, relatively speaking, very small countries.
But the set -up, the first summit really showcased that, particularly from China's perspective, it treats these five centroided countries really on equal footing and the shows very high degree of respect for the national leaders from these countries, but also unique cultures from each country.
And then try to build a genuinely and very respectful relation between all five countries and China.
I think this is actually a very important and lasting impact of the summit two years ago.
And then since then, there are some quite noticeable progress.
I would highlight maybe two or three policies here.
One is further enhance the connectivity, the most important example in that sphere is the final completion of negotiation of a multi -authorial major railway projects between China, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The negotiation has been going on for quite a long time.
We've met some various one way or another, but since the previous summit, we finally reached a significant progress in these physical connectivity.
And I think the benefits from this multilateral railway would manifest itself very clearly in the years to come.
And then another part is, I would say in the human and multicultural sphere, transcultural interaction sphere, we've seen significant inflow of, for example, students from Central Asian countries.
I'm actually teaching a quite a large group of Central Asian countries in my own home university.
And then also I think that just the past two years, the interest in Central Asia and the interest from China and the interest of China from Central Asian countries, I think significantly increase.
That's also a very important progress we have achieved during the past two years.
Now China has decided to establish three cooperation centers, one on poverty reduction, one on education exchange, and one on desertification prevention and control.
In the meantime, plans are also on the way on the Chinese part for a cooperation platform on smooth trade.
Do you think these planned facilities will make China Central Asia cooperation more more results -oriented, more efficient, and more deeply integrated?
Those are all very timely decisions to develop existing collaborations between China and the five Central Asian countries in these three important policies.
As you mentioned, are more efficient, more integrated, but also more coordinated in a manner.
I think it's also important to point out these cooperation centers focus on three specific policy sphere.
Those are all things that China and its five Central Asian countries have been doing over the past two decades, but now I think that to receive a much higher level of joint attention, and will receive more policy resources on both sides through the establishment of these the core cooperation centers, and those cooperation centers, as I just mentioned, well very likely increase the level of policy coordination on these six countries national level, particularly for larger countries, China, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, to form these collaboration on a much more coordinated level.
So during the summit in Astana this time, We also saw these top leaders expressing a joint commitment to consolidating the multilateral trading system based on the rules of the World Trade Organization.
So how do you think China and Central Asia can jointly safeguard this multilateral trading system?
This is a little bit tricky I would say, because the current situation in terms of WTO has the the most authoritative, mostly influential international regulatory body over world trade.
That fact is actually significantly weakened over the past 10, 15 years.
And its overall policy agenda of promoting free trade on a global level has met so much resistance on different fronts, both from developed country and some developing country.
On the one hand, I think the joint commitment, as you mentioned, between China and the Central Asian countries, particularly to Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan – if I'm not mistaken – these two countries are recently bid for WTO membership of course shows the joint commitment to preserving WTO's overall role as the legitimate, authoritative international governing body for free trade.
And then by way of that, this shows the commitment and interest to jointly safeguard the overall multilateral trading system.
So whether these commitments from China and central Asian countries, maybe together with some other international actors can help some revive WTO to to help WTO go back its original route and to play its supposed doomed role.
I think it's a desirable policy outcome but this will be very very difficult.
The joint commitments, the interest there is a probable, but a problem but I think to achieve that is extremely difficult and will need joint efforts from more than China and Central Asia.
I take your point. China and Central Asian countries have, basically speaking, institutionalized the dialogues between the two sides.
At the end of the day, from the Chinese side, what do you think China is ultimately pursuing by forging closer ties with Central Asia?
or especially the the points we make about institutionalized their dialogue right on the Austin declaration we see this time and especially the signing of the Treaty between five century in country and China on permanent permanent friendly cooperation and good nibbly friendly neighborhood yeah I This is particularly important given the increasingly volatile situation we see in the heartland of Eurasia continent, starting from Ukraine all the way through Middle East. And the Middle East is closely geographically closely tied with Central Asia.
So I think this declaration and the treaty on permanent neighborhood is as you said institutionalized that kind of relation between Central Asia and China.
This is a very important policy choice.
I think Chinese state put a lot of resources to achieve that.
Partly, of course, is for China's own benefits, a prosperous and safe, secure, peaceful Central Asia is in every way in China's own interest. That this goes without any say.
And then of course in the long run, the institutionalized dialogue, the interaction of the neighborhood and the friendly corporation, also bring benefits to China and the five Central Asian countries in whole.
And this also serves China's long strategic vision that the long -term sustainable security can only be achieved through genuine development.
So this development security nexus is a very important part of China's overall vision for global development and for global security.
In this case, the institutionalized a dialogue between Central Asia and China.
I think in the years to come both become a very important part of implementing this development security nexus in the benefits for both China and Central Asian countries.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Dr. Zhang Xing, Deputy Director of the Center for Russian studies, East China, Normal University.
Coming up, China unveils eight major financial opening up measures at the ongoing 2025 Lu will be back.
You are listening to World Today, I am Dinghen in Beijing.
The People's Bank of China has unveiled eight measures to further open China's financial market.
The measures include establishing an intra -bank market transaction reporting system and a digital yuan international operation center.
Licensed personal credit agencies will be introduced in order to provide diversified credit services to financial institutions.
In the meantime, Shanghai's Lingang New Area will launch a pilot program for offshore trade financial services.
Other measures in the same package include optimizing free trade account functions, innovating currency policy tools, and promoting yuan foreign exchange futures transactions.
The Central Bank of China announced these measures at the 2025 Liu Jiaxue Forum held in Shanghai.
So for more joining us now are Russel Liu Baochen, University of International Business and Economics.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Hi Dean. It's always a pleasure.
First of all, Professor Liu, why is there a need for China to create a database for interbank market transaction reporting?
Well, the creation of such a centralized database for interbank market transactions is there to reflect a broader effort to enhance financial transparency, improve the capability for risk management, and also to strengthen the regulatory oversight by different organizations.
So, when China's financial market becomes more and more complexed and also interconnected with the rest of the world, particularly in the opening process where more of the foreign financial institutions, they participate in great strides to work with China in real time.
So, therefore, a very comprehensive and transparent interbank transaction data becomes critical for them to detect some of the systematic risks and to monitor liquidity flow.
And also it's there to conduct more of the targeted monetary operation which is there to build better alignment with the Chinese policy drive.
So I could also see that this practice is also aligned with international best practices in building better transparency.
And, it is also instrumental for PBOC, which stands for People's Bank of China as a central bank, to build a modern, data -driven regulatory framework, to be able to facilitate some of the early warnings and, that's there to serve the more prudent management, both of which are essential in safeguarding the financial stability and also is there to promote operational efficiency.
I see, now some people say this plan to build an international operation center for digital yuan is aimed at expanding the international use of the digital yuan at a time when global trade tensions triggered by Washington's trade policies are prompting global investors to seek every possible alternative to those dollar -based investments.
What is your take on this?
I very much agree because the internationalization of RMB or Chinese Yuan is the long set of strategic ambitions for China.
Therefore, this is not a mere technological initiative but also is there to a serve as a strategic response to the increasingly fragmented global financial landscape and China sees among many other countries that a U .S. is there to continually weaponize a dollar and also the swift system through the control and excessive intervention in the transaction and tariff.
So therefore, the countries and companies are actively exploring alternatives to reduce their pressure to the dollar -centric system.
So by establishing an international operations center, China aims to offer the digital UN as a credible, transparent, and efficient cross -border settlement tool, especially to render a better service for the Belt and Road partner countries and also many other global source markets that trade increasingly heavily with China.
So this move can really generally chip away at the dominance of the U .S. dollar in specific sectors, such as trade finance, energy settlement, or digital payments.
And particularly when and where China is playing a dominant role in the trade transactions.
And also, this is also very much in alignment was the Chinese spread of many of the subsidiaries and branches around the globe for the financial settlement center and also the bank services.
Then with regards to promoting yuan foreign exchange futuristic transaction, do you think this is going to serve China's bigger policy goal of keeping the Chinese currency, the yuan exchange rate relatively stable or basically stable and fanning off external shocks or risks the answer is yes by promoting uh the yuan foreign exchange futures we identify a key instrument to achieve greater exchange rate stability and resilience foreign exchange futures they provide market participants with the tools to hedge against the currency volatility which is going on today and getting even more and more tough.
So enhancing, that's also there to enhance the price discovery and reduce the speculative shocks in the stock market.
So by deepening the derivative market, China can also improve liquidity and offer foreign investors more of the stable channels to manage the RMB exposure, which in turn is there to support the greater usage of Chinese yuan in the cross -border investment, trade, and other financial operations.
So it is very much in line with the Chinese policy approach, which is managed flexibility to the exchange rate policy, where market forces play a bigger role, but also that the oversight and the regular framework must be there to provide the cushion and guard against the disorderly fluctuation of the entire financial market.
The final question before we let you go, when we talk about China's step in further opening the country's financial markets, what do you think China is ultimately looking for nowadays?
Are talking about during foreign investments or attracting foreign talent or something else?
I can summarize the three major objectives China is pursuing.
It is there to provide a modern, resilient, transparent financial market system.
So the priority is to stabilize the Chinese financial market per se based on which the China will be able to create more of the policy tools to attract a foreign capital to participate into the Chinese the high quality growth strategy and also is there to serve more of the talent to continually to boost a healthy Chinese financial market in connection with the rest of the world.
So the emphasis is there to build a rule -based transparent and innovation driven financial ecosystem that supports the country's growth and also to benefit the rest of all participants from business community to countries that engage with China on long -term and sustainable basis.
Thank you very much for joining us today.
Professor Liu Baoquan from the University of International Business and Economics.
Coming up, EU and Australia have agreed to negotiate security and defense partnership.
You are listening to World Today.
I'm Ding Han in Beijing.
We'll be back after a short break.
You are back with world today, I am Dingheng in Beijing.
China's electric vehicle makers have surged ahead of the competition in global EV sales.
The global automaker rating from the International Council on Green Transportation says, Chinese car makers are dominating the zero -emission vehicle space.
China now accounts for more than 11 million EVs sold annually, over half of global EV sales.
Companies including Geely, and SAIC have already hit 50 % EV sales targets meeting their obligations a full year early.
The reports by the council is also confirming a big milestone.
In 2024, Chinese EV maker BYD surpassed Tesla in global battery EV sales for the first time.
For more, my colleague Zhao Yang spoke with Dr. Yan Liang, professor of economics with Willimatt University.
So first, what do you think are the highlights of this latest global automaker rating?
To me, there are two major highlights.
One is that you see the Chinese EV manufacturers are really the leaders in this industry.
The Chinese manufacturer occupy the top five positions in the so -called ZEV, the zero emission vehicles, the class coverage, which means they provide a lot of varieties of zero -emission cars, such as the battery -electric vehicles and the plug -in hybrid -electric vehicles.
And then they also occupy five out of six, the top positions for EV sales shares.
So with the exception of BYD, it's a non -Chinese manufacturer that makes it to the top six.
The rest of the five are all Chinese manufacturers.
So that really shows the Chinese manufacturers are the leaders in this industry.
And second, I think what is encouraging from this report is that it shows that the vast majority of automakers demonstrated enhancements in their technological performance, including energy consumption, charging speed and driving range.
So now I think what they need to work on are green steel and battery cycle.
we use these kinds of technologies.
But overall I think it is an encouraging picture that I think with the leadership of China and of course, with Tesla as well, we're seeing improvements in this zero -emission vehicles.
And how significant is China's milestone accounting for over half of the global EV sales?
Right. So China's EV sales is $11 million.
And as you said, it accounts for half of the global EV sales.
I think this is very significant because we know that China is a growing vehicle market.
So the fact that China can very quickly increase the EV shares from just maybe 2 % back in 2020 to now over half in its own domestic market, actually more than half in its domestic market, I think this in and of itself is very significant.
it helps to accelerate China's green transition when it comes to the transportation industry.
And so that really helped to reduce China's own carbon emissions.
But more importantly, I think with China's technological improvements and the fact that China has this vast manufacturing capacity, it really helped to contribute to the global green transition and the green transportation industry.
So I think this is really significant as a way to really accelerate this process of transitioning to the zero emission cars.
And I think China really made a very significant and unique contribution in this process.
And for China's competitive edge, what has enabled Chinese automakers like BYD, like Geely to achieve such rapid progress in the EV development and sales?
Well, I think there's really a host of factors that allow the Chinese EV makers to be so successful.
For one, I think we cannot forget that the government has played a very important role.
I think back in 2009, the Chinese government already began actively promoting EVs. And that is very early in this EV development history.
So for China's own interest when it comes to climate change, when it comes to energy security, it makes a lot of sense for the government to support an EV industry.
It also provides public funding for green -energy R &D.
It helped build a public infrastructure like the highways, but more importantly, like the 3 .2 million public charging stations.
So all of these really helped promote the EV adoption in China.
And second I think very importantly is about entrepreneurship and the innovations.
As you mentioned, many of these car makers, for example, BYD, they have already started to develop the battery technology as early as 1996.
So this is decades long of innovations and also efforts to promote the battery technology, the EV technologies.
We also know that now BYD has really making a lot of progress in terms of their fast charging technologies.
Like they can just charge five minutes and the car could last for 470 kilometers and the hybrids could achieve with the longest range of over 2000 kilometres.
So I think all these innovations, also the design and the very user -friendly user experiences from the very good design cars and all of these help to promote the adoptions in the Chinese market.
And last but not least, I think the Chinese consumers, they are technology savvy and they also very readily embrace this new technology.
So I think all of these are really helpful when it comes to how China is able to really dominate in this EV space.
And what does China's EV development mean for the global supply chain, especially surrounding the batteries and semiconductors?
Right, so I think this is very important, as many economists or politicians, when they talk about China's dominance in the EV industry, they always sees this as a zero -sum game.
But I think the matter of fact is that as China develop all these technologies and to be able to mass produce cars at a very affordable prices, it really helped to create a lot more demand for EVs. And so that means China is able to make the cake a lot bigger, and so all the companies are able to enter the space and compete and to provide the best quality and the lowest price for the consumers.
and so that really helps to accelerate the adoption of the EVs. So, like I mentioned, because the Chinese factory technology is so advanced, now I think China has a lot to contribute through overseas investments, joint ventures in developing countries like Thailand, like Mexico, like in Brazil and so on, Hungary, and through all these joint ventures, China is able to not only, you know provide the best cars to the local consumers but they're able to transfer technologies and share some of these technologies with some of these recipient countries local firms. So I think in a way you know technology
is what economists will call its endogenous.
The more that China is able to develop its own technology and share with the rest of the world, for the rest of the world to learn, the more technologies are are going to advance.
So I think this is good for not only China, but also for the rest of the world, both in terms of developing the best cars, the best products for the consumers, but also when it comes to climate protection.
And as China's EV brands expand globally, how are they being received in overseas markets, especially in Europe and in Southeast Asia?
Well, I think the Chinese EVs are really popular, again, And because they are known for very high quality, very good in terms of their technological performances when it comes to, for example, battery charging, speed, also their road range.
And also many of the design of the cars are very driver -friendly, very high safety standards, and so on, so forth.
And also they have many different varieties of cars, from very high price range to very affordable price range.
So, I think these varieties of choices, good performances really made them very popular, especially for the younger generation, for the young consumers.
But again, the difficulties right now is there are a lot of protectionist policies, especially in these high -income countries like European countries, as well as in the United States.
So I think the consumers lose out in this situation.
and like I mentioned earlier, this is not good for their own domestic car makers either.
So hopefully, the Chinese and the EU counterparts are actively negotiating.
I think hopefully they will come to a favorable kind of outcome very soon when it comes to the EV market assets and also when it comes to these investment standards and so on and so forth.
And I think that would benefit the consumers but also very good for the climate.
Yanliang, Professor of Economics with Willemont University talking with my colleague Zhao Yang.
Coming up, EU and Australia have agreed to negotiate a new security and defense partnership.
This is World Today.
We'll be back. You are back what's world today, I am Dinh An in Beijing.
The European Union and Australia have agreed to begin negotiations on a new Security and Defense partnership.
The proposed pact is aimed at boosting cooperation in defense industry, cyber security and counter -terrorism, but without any military deployment commitment.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are calling this particular move a step toward stronger ties in an era of global tensions.
The two sides have also reaffirmed a joint commitment towards reviving their free trade negotiations that somehow stalled back in the year 2023.
For more, my colleague Songrui Xin spoke with Professor Joseph Syracuse, Professor of Global futurist was Curtin University in Australia.
So first of all, Professor Siracusa, for our audiences who may not know, what does the Asia -Pacific region mean to the European Union in terms of economic interests and geopolitical competition?
A couple of years ago, maybe ten years ago, European defence analysts and American analysts and some Australians started talking about the Pacific region as the Indo -Pacific.
That is, they tried to think in terms of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
Of course, Australia is situated in the South West Pacific.
And they started to think about it as one strategic region.
Of course, it isn't, but that's how they think about it.
And Europe has been looking for an opportunity to spread its wings.
That is, to get involved in Indo European negotiations or security.
In fact, this is the French idea of extending NATO.
Now all the members of the European Union are members of NATO.
NATO, of course, is run by the United States.
They're afraid to do anything there, so they're trying to stretch themselves this way.
So, the European Union, which consists of these 27 nations, they have some kind of a South Koreans last year and with the Japanese.
These are security, cooperation, and partnerships that do not have military obligations.
That is, there's no clause that says that one has to go to the rescue of the other.
Of course, what we're looking at in Europe, the European Union, is looking for a way to grow, to extend its influence.
And they're sort of trying to figure out how the world works without the United States.
Now the Australian interest in the European Union offer negotiations for security and defence is about trade, it's about making things together, it's about sharing intelligence, all these things they could do without this arrangement, so it's not a hard and fast security agreement, but what it suggests to me is at least from Australia's position that it's reprioritizing their own defense.
I think Australian defense planners are counting a little less and less on Donald Trump's reliability, and so they're turning to Europe now in this country, which started out as a British colony.
There are, you know, millions of people whose roots are in Europe.
So, making connections with Europe is easy for Australians.
They feel very comfortable there.
Although Australia has tenuous security ties with Japan and South Korea and the like, Europe is very, very comfortable.
Now, when we talk about Europe, we're not talking about the United Kingdom.
I mean, Britain, of course, was the great powerful friend of Australia up until the Anzus Alliance in 1951.
But Britain is not part of the EU.
And therefore, it's not part of this arrangement.
Yeah, like you have mentioned that Australia is currently kind of trying to reprioritize its defense, and do you think the AUKUS has, I mean, has become an, let's say, obstacle in this broad context?
Well, I think AUKUS as it was envisaged— that is, the transfer or sale of three to five Virginia -class submarines to Australia and then design some nuclear subs, powered subs with the British, I don't think it's going to come to pass that way.
That deal was struck a couple years ago by Boris Johnson and a former prime minister here in Australia, Scott Morrison and Joe Biden.
Well, you notice all three of them are gone.
And so there is a little less interest. But you know, the the undersecretary of defense in the United States, his name is Bridge Colby, he's very pro -Australian but he's trying to tell them with this review that we can't give in Virginia -class submarines, new or used, because the American boatyards are not replenishing the fleet to a year.
They have procurement for two Virginia -class submarines a year.
The boatyard is only producing 1 .8.
Some people say even 1 .2.
In other words, America's Virginia class is not getting the replacements it wants.
So how can they give anything to Australia?
So the review is about, you know, I'm sorry, we can't help you.
Now, the AUKUS arrangement in this country was touted as a very important deal, $368 billion, over 30 years, all kinds of new industries and the like, but I think it's going to fall flat out of space.
I've read a piece of statement, which is about Europe and Australia's commit to security and defense partnership.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, quote, unquote, Europe and Australia's enduring friendship enters a new chapter today.
How do you interpret the meaning of the new chapter?
Well, she's trying to make the best of a bad deal.
I mean, she is invited to the G7 as a guest of the G7.
The Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney.
And she's saying that Europe has a future in Australia.
Well, Europe is already here.
Europe is highly invested in Australia.
As I say, the Australians have European connections.
Now, what she's trying to do is she's trying to revive the European defense strategy.
You know, there are 490 million people in Europe, it's not even Britain as a matter of fact, who are worried about how to defend themselves against Russia or anything in the future.
And they're sort of looking outside of Europe for partners.
I mean, to call this partnership a security and defense partnership is really a little of violence on the language, actually.
It's neither of those things.
It's about cooperation, sharing maybe defense industries coming together.
But Australia has a very small industrial base, it's always going to have to get its weaponry from somewhere else.
And what kind? There are 27 million Australians, only 73 ,000 in the Australian Defence Force.
Half of them are sitting at desks.
It's not like Australia has a major power.
Australia has always worked with a great and powerful friend, the British before the United States.
And as the United States becomes slightly unreliable, some Australians, particularly the critics, are looking over the horizon and see, well, who else can we team up with.
Can we trust the Quad?
Not really. Can you trust the South Koreans?
Well, they're going to have their own trouble if there's a war somewhere else.
And so they're looking to Europe for, I think, security.
This is kind of a security blanket.
It's more psychological than real.
Right. Since June 2018, Australia and the EU have been negotiating a free trade agreement, but agricultural lobbies have complicated efforts to reach a deal or, let's say, secure a final deal.
So what is the current status of the free trade negotiations, and why is there renewed momentum now after so many years?
Well, the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, is hoping that this talk of a partnership will bring results, positive results, in a hurry.
And one of those is the free trade agreement, which they've been working on for years.
He's hoping that the free trade agreement might be hurried along a little bit, might be the first dividend of this new way of looking at each other.
And you're right, there are all kinds of entrenched interests involved that don't want to do certain things, particularly the agricultural people.
So, it's got really nothing to do with the defense security proposal right now, but he's hoping that it will be a dividend as these talks progress.
So, last September, Professor Australia suddenly announced the cancellation of a multi -billion dollar submarine contract with France, opting instead to purchase nuclear powered submarines from the US and the UK.
And now they are going to negotiate security and defense partnership.
So what does this mean and how do you view the timing?
Well, when the AUKUS agreement was reached or just before it was reached.
The French were told that the nuclear submarines, power submarines that the Australians were going to buy from the French that the deal had fallen through, okay?
And that announcement you're reading is the final legal settlement, you know, Australia paid I guess millions of dollars to get off the hook legally because you know sort of a nuisance fee and I don't know, I don't think the French boat builders are going to be too excited about getting into bed with the Australians again because the Australian defense industry, here the Australian in Defense Department, badly burdened the French building people, security people there.
So you know, they probably have very hard feelings.
I mean, you can't trust somebody who is reneged on their debt.
So they're still very sore about that.
Professor Joseph Siracusa joining us from Curtin University in Australia, speaking with my colleague Sunrui Qin.
You are listening to the World Today.
stay tuned. You're back with World Today.
I'm Ding Chen in Beijing.
In Canada, Manitoba Premier Webb Keanor is urging the Canadian federal government to spell out a clear strategy for repairing ties with China.
The provincial leader says it's important for Canada to have a strategy given the rise of China.
Kinyu has emphasized the need for quote on quote guardrails in dealing with countries including China.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang recently held a phone conversation with his Canadian counterpart Marc Carney.
The two leaders agreed to regularize channels of communication between Beijing and Ottawa.
So for more joining us now on the line is Ina Tengen, senior fellow with Taihe Institute and chairman of the Asian Narratives Substat.
Thank you very much for joining us, Ina.
Good to be here, Ding.
So why do you think Manitoba's provincial leader is so eager to see the tensions between Beijing and Ottawa resolved?
What's at stake for his province here?
1 .6 billion dollars in trade.
He's in there in a very, very difficult situation.
They're trying to figure out exactly how they're going to get it.
But you notice there was an article, and he made statements in it, and he still goes back to this idea that somehow China is a bad nation.
And this is one of the main issues that's at stake here.
If you go back through history, there were legendary heroes that were associated with Canada.
Canada was seen by the Chinese people as real humanitarians, and doctor Henry Norman who was, you know, he was still celebrated today because of his work just being a doctor, and then you had you know just prior to your Trudeau's term Canada was one of the few countries that did not turn its back on China during a very very tough time there was a real shortage of food and and they sent food, and this became the basis of the relationship, and things started to sour when the U .S. decided that it needed to contain China, you know, just around the end of the Obama era, this, you know, this pivot to
Asia and things like that, and you start seeing the rhetoric pile up and then it really went off the rails when they grabbed Meng Wanzhou, you know, under pressure from Donald Trump, basically kidnapped her.
And, you know, they say, oh, but you took two guys named Michael.
Well, it turns out that that one was a spy and the other one was his handler.
And how do we know that?
Well, he sued the government and was very successful, apparently, in getting the money based on, he said, I was an unknowing asset that was being handled by your security so you know Canada has to get over this idea that somehow China's a bad actor what China has done with the Belt and Road Initiative has helped countries throughout the world and Canada should be paying attention to what is being done instead of what Washington is saying yeah indeed so yeah and to put what you said into a into another perspective I guess back in 2022 alcohol, had a reversal of its previous policy of avoiding confrontation with China by rolling out
an Indo -Pacific strategy.
Of course, that's a copy of the name from Washington that's called out China as an quote -unquote increasingly disruptive global power.
Of course, that was not a constructive step in retrospect.
Now, of course, I mean, between the two sides there drastic differences in terms of their understanding of say, democracy or human rights.
Now, the provincial leader of Manitoba has talked about ensuring that Canada's engagement with China is happening in a way that will serve Canada's domestic interests.
Is that possible, realistically speaking?
Well, yes and no. If I go up to you and say, I think you're an evil you know, criminal.
But yet let's do some trade.
I mean, it's not going to go far.
I mean, the fact is I reject this idea that Canadians and Chinese have different ideas for human rights.
That's nonsense. That's a false narrative that's being pushed by a nation that wants to contain Chinese.
The fact is that Canadians value a ballot box, and they value their free speech and things like this and so does China, but in a different way.
China has whole process democracy and they speak through actions.
You cannot deny what China has done for its people, how it's lifted it up, extreme poverty.
These are things that are, these are similar to what Canadians believe.
They're socialists.
They have, you know, uniform health care.
This is something where they actually agree.
But the rhetoric from Washington continues to be so negative.
So in terms of what he's saying, yeah, he's saying, well, you know, what's good for me?
But if you're going to have a relationship with somebody, it has to be built on trust. And I would urge people in Canada to go back to the early days and remember what trust really was.
You know, what they built in China, instead of trying to listen to the rhetoric of the nation.
As I keep saying, Washington says repeatedly, we need to contain China.
We're preparing for war.
We'll do anything to take them down, including lying about the effect of vaccines to Filipinos who are our allies, resulting in thousands of deaths.
When confronted and said, hey, why did you do that?
He said, well, we didn't really think about the Philippines, but we would do it again to get at China.
So why would you believe anything coming out of Washington that's negative about China?
So hopefully now there can be a reset in this relationship between China and Canada.
Now the final question before we let you go and we still have about one minute.
A clear message we have heard from Canada's new Prime Minister is that his country must to reduce its trade and economic dependence on the United States.
Can China help Canada achieve this particular goal?
That's Canada's decision.
I mean, if they want to go towards China, that's fine.
China's not saying you either go with us or go with the US.
They're saying look, be part of the multilateral, multi -holder world.
So yes, if Canada can put away all the rhetoric.
Yes, they can in fact join the rest of the world instead of relying on an unreliable, untruthful partner.
It's no longer a partner.
And you know, they have to take the blinkers off.
They have to see the way the world is based on actions.
That's exactly what China can show them.
So I mean, it's China who's put together, the RC, well not put together, but joined the RCEP.
They're the ones who are trying to join the TPP, or the TCTPP.
They're the ones who put the Belt and Road together.
I mean, they put a trillion dollars over ten years into it.
These are the types of actions that Canadians have to look at now that Washington has shown its true face.
Thank you very much for joining us.
I am a Tangen senior fellow with the Taihe Institute and a chairperson of the Asian Narrative Substack.
Unfortunately that's all the time for this edition of World Today.
I am Dihan in Beijing.
To listen to this episode again or to catch up on our previous episodes, you can download our podcast by searching World Today.
Thank you so much for listening.
Bye for now.
