Hello and welcome to World Today, I'm Dink Hing -Bai Jin.
Coming up, Xi Jinping speaks to private sector entrepreneurs in a high -profile meeting.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi pledges that China will be a stabilizing force in a changing world.
old. France is holding an emergency European summit in Paris to try to address the challenges posed by U .S.
President Donald Trump.
Apple has picked Alibaba to launch AI Futures in China.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged steady support to advance the healthy and high -quality development of China's private enterprises.
The Chinese top leader made the remark on Monday at a closed -door symposium with prominent private entrepreneurs in China.
Xi Jinping said the current challenges faced by private businesses are temporary and it can be overcome, vowing to further improve China's legal framework and the legal system to safeguard the growth of the private sector.
sector. The private sector contributes for more than 60 % of China's GDP and more than 80 % of the urban employment.
So joining us now underlying is Dr. Yao Shujie, Changkon professor of economics with Chongqing University.
So thank you very much for joining us today, Professor Yao.
Some people say this meeting on Monday signals a shift towards a renewed top level support for the private sector, which will likely reignite optimism about renewed gross momentum in China.
Some are even suggesting that it could potentially be more powerful than fiscal stimulus.
If policymakers show more concrete and decisive support towards the private sector in China, what is your take?
The meeting helped send a fairly powerful signal for the central government, particularly from president Xi Jinping and his colleague at the Politburo to support the private sector.
Despite that over the last 10 years or 20 years, there is a sequence of government policies supporting the private sector.
But I think the most significant show off this time is the meeting today, which is widely circulated in the media.
And there's lots of discussion about how the central government may be willing to support the private sector.
I think this is a very significant step forward for the sector to support the Chinese economy long -term growth.
So with regard to China's domestic economic tasks, such as boosting consumption or tackling the real estate industry slump, how much does showing support or supporting the private sector matter here?
Yeah, the private sector have become a very important driver and increasing the driver for the Chinese economy in terms of production, technological innovation, and there's also a lot of other creativity, including new creativity in the AI system, the newly emerging industries.
I think China is facing quite a lot of challenges at the moment.
As you mentioned, the housing bubble crash has been a significant blow to the real economy in China.
But for me, I think this is a short term shock.
It's not underlying the long term weakness of the national economy.
Because the housing bubble has been developing for many years, I think it is time to have some significant adjustment.
And these adjustments certainly have a very short -term or even medium -term impact on the national economy.
But the slowdown in the real sector actually is a great opportunity for the non -real estate sector to emerge.
particularly the newly emerging industry and also technological, uh, related activities, uh, you know, robust technology and AI development and so on and so forth.
So it is, uh, it is a part of the adjustment process in my view.
And the supporting of the private sector is going to accelerate this process of industrial and production transformation in the longer term.
Now, then, when it comes to China's external headwinds, especially additional tariffs imposed by certain countries on Chinese exports, to what extent do you think supporting the private sector here in this country can help mitigate the relevant pressure?
Yes, it looks like the representative for the meeting, most of the people, are leading figures in the new technological sector, and the international headwind imposed by some other country, particularly America, about foreign trade tariff, this will certainly have a damaging effect for the real economy.
But the solution to this kind of external shock is the domestic innovation.
If China is able to create productivity through new innovation, it's not going to totally depend on falling forces.
Then the domestic economic economy system would have a very powerful effect on the Brazilian capabilities to absorb this external shock.
We see that over the last eight years or so, when the China -U .S.
trade confusions actually had damaged China's export capability.
But in the longer term, I think the Chinese export advantage, driven by technological innovation supported by the private sector, is going to become a very virtuous system on innovation production and export.
And these kinds of capability building heavily depends on the gigantic domestic market.
Heavily dependent on the private sector is able to continue to innovate and produce products Which are highly competitive in the international market.
For example, the new vehicle industries, the AI deep seek are now moving to the forefront of the international market and technological frontier.
So I think supporting the private sector is the key to all these kinds of development and the solution to these kinds of international conflict.
Hm. And of course, like you have suggested, Professor China's rapid tech developments or innovation is most recently and notably represented by this artificial intelligence, domestic artificial intelligence model DeepSeek, and it has really provided investors with calls for renewed optimism about the long term sustainable growth of the Chinese economy.
And of course, when we talk about DeepSeek, that's a private company based in Hangzhou, right.
So can you elaborate more with regard to the role that the private sector is playing in terms of strengthening China's scientific or tech innovation?
Yeah, deep seek is a very good example.
There are also many other examples we can mention.
For example, like BRD, like the E3, like the Metro trees, and so on, and so forth.
Now, you know, the private sector certainly play a pivotal role in this process, but the private sector is rooted in the healthy development of the national economy, particularly the human power, the human resources, that have been accumulating over the last four decades, where China has developed a fairly large talent pool, which enables some of the talents to create miracles.
These miracles, particularly represented by deepship, give the Chinese society, the Chinese industry, and also the Chinese engineers, significant confidence.
The country has confidence to confront with the competition at the international market, which is fairly important.
Because in some areas nowadays we can say that China can be the front -line largest and have to depend on everything in America, everything on Western Europe, and other.
We have lots of things which are parallel or even, you know, over settle the most advanced machine, the most advanced innovation in the system.
This means that the Chinese engineer, the Chinese scientists and the Chinese entrepreneurs, they are able to do it if the country provides the right environment.
And this this meeting is just to exactly to provide the environment to enable you know all these forces to come to the forefront to innovate to take the country into a much higher step.
So more specifically professor Yao, what kind of policy support do you think as private sector needs most urgently right now.
A couple of years ago or several years ago we are mostly talking about the private sector's difficulty, the difficulty they are faced with in terms of getting access to financing and loans, etc. Nowadays, when we talk about the challenges or the difficulties in this regard, are we still talking about the same issue?
Yeah, I think we are more or less talking about the same issue.
You know, over the last four decades, China made a huge progress in terms of combining the state -worn sector and the private economy together to create the world's largest economy miracle.
But over the process there's always some inequalities, some unfair treatment against the private sector, particularly the smaller and medium -sized and micro enterprises.
Now, for the bigger firms, maybe there are no so disadvantages.
The disadvantage they face is because of the ownership nature.
You know, there's an ideological debate about state -worn and private sector, and the laws that different sector can play, and how the profit they can make for individual and for the country, and the society, and the general people, the employees, and the general society.
Now, we understand all these differences.
The problem is the society, the government, and also the general sentiment that a socialist country, how can we accommodate and use the private sector to prepare economy development reason, while also creating social equality and justice.
So these means the legal framework is really important.
So what the private sector need is first of all, they should be legally recognized, and they are the onshore point, and also the private sector has to be protected heavily, rather than facing uncertainty.
And secondly, in terms of financing, I think much of the financial resources are controlled by the state -worn bank and the great state companies.
So they are two possible reforms to be deepen.
One is that the state -worn financial sector, they should be treated the private and the state -worn sector equally, on a labor playing field.
And secondly, maybe China at some stage should be in college more financial sector to develop and also help the private sector itself.
Now, certainly, the legal system have to be strengthened.
I mean, whether it is private sector or public sector, they got to be protected by the government, by the legal system.
And fourthly, I think in terms of law enforcement, there shouldn't be any discrimination between the private sector and the public sector.
If the private sector makes some mistake or some illegal act, then they should be prosecuted fairly well.
So these kinds of legal system and the information of the law and regulation is also fairly important.
They need to make transparent and become the national policy, you know, built into the country's institutional, you know, establishment.
Thank you very much for your analysis and for joining us today.
That was Professor Yao Xujian joining us from Chongqing University.
Coming up, China pledges to be a force for stability in a changing world.
Stay tuned. You're listening to World Today.
I'm Dinhany Beijing Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has pledged that China will be a stabilizing force in a multi -polar system.
The senior Chinese diplomat made a remark at the Munich Security Conference held in Germany, saying China advocates equality among countries, respects the rule of international allow practices of multilateralism and uphold openness and win -win cooperation.
Wang Yi expressed the confidence about the outlook for China -US relations, but also vowed a resolute response if Beijing faced unilateral bullying practice from Washington.
Wang Yi also said that China would like to witness all efforts conducive to the peace progress in a war in Ukraine, including the recent common understanding between the United States and Russia.
Wang Yi also called on the international community to support the Chinese mainland's reunification with Taiwan.
So joining us now underlying is Professor Wang Yiwei, Director of the European Study Center with Renmin University of China.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Thank you. So first of all, Professor Wang, what do you think makes China a stabilizing force in a multi polar world order?
And what do you think those few principles elaborated upon by the Chinese foreign minister in Munich Conference?
Tell us about China's view on multi polarization, for example.
Well I'll just come back from you at least in minister Wang Yi just after the Vice President of the United States went the European colleagues told me it seems like the US is from the mosque China is from the winners it's a totally different form of the diplomatic you know question.
So why we say Wang Yi emphasized on a stabilizing force because because our culture is different with the US.
All the Panas raised these very popular questions about whether China is the import -druffing country or if China intends to replace US as their hegemonic power.
I replied, US is, we said, chosen people.
God bless America like J .D.
Wans in the last sentence.
He even delivered in Munich.
China, with Buddhism, Taoism, and computing, three represent Chinese culture.
Buddhism more focus on you and yourself, your heart relations, in this regard or inward looking, and Confucianism is more focused on people's, you and others' relations, and Taoism is you and the man and the nature relations.
So this is our DNA, not chan, 5 ,000 years, right.
And for Chinese development, we have the peaceful rise.
China's major different forces for China is innovation or development is because we will have a better life for the Chinese people.
Now we have 400 million mid -class, by 2035 we will be double 800 million.
We need innovation, we need peaceful environment.
So that's reason I think that on the emphasize on this depolarization force.
When we mentioned about China's views on multiple polarization, firstly, it will be equal, so What's so -called the U .S.
alliance system if there are other of the plans on the U .S., if they cannot guarantee that by the U .S.
and then they are uncomfortable like today's Europe.
Secondly, it should be order.
You know, it's not mean chaos, which European Union very worried about that in the history with not repeated itself.
Certainly, I think Chinese focus on the multi -polar wall should be based on the open prosperity of economic growth globalization.
So that's really something that's foundational for the political structure.
So, regarding the China -U .S.
relations, Wang Yi said, quote, Of course, we hope that the United States will work in the same direction with us.
However, if the US is not willing, if it is bent on suppressing and containing China, then we have no choice but to play a long to the end, end unquote.
So, having heard that message from the Chinese foreign minister, do you agree that the ball is in the court of the United States, when we talk about how this bilateral ties are going to develop in the near future?
Well, China and the U .S., as two major economies in the world, China emphasized that the globalization in chemical immunization should continue.
The U .S. want to have the decarbled de -risk policy, or even have the American first.
That's a different approach.
China is different with U .S.
allies. It's more independent, and China also diversifies our export market.
The trade with the United States, only 11 percent of all the Chinese trade with the world, So, China is actually more confident.
Even the US playing the title of curve or any other, we throw from the international society.
China I think is the most you know independent to deal with, and also more comfortable to deal with that.
Many Europeans want to make the appeasement policy with Trump, and then I think China disregards without.
And then at this year's Munich Security Conference, we know significant amount of attention has focused on what role China might play in those peace negotiations or peace talks initiated by US President Donald Trump for the war in Ukraine.
What message do you read from the Chinese Foreign Minister's relevant remark at the event?
Well, in the Ukraine war, this is the third year, so more attractive to the participants from the Munich and McKenna specific conference.
The Europeans emphasized the two principles at the end of the war.
First, it should be the last, the last teampiece.
Second, it should be the justice piece.
So be the last teampiece that means not repeat again.
The Ukraine would really have heard about if, have the ceasefire, make a deal with Russia, Maybe when Russia recover from the war, and then we launch another attack to Ukraine or even attack more countries.
So that's what they're worried about.
But for the Chinese, we think about the last piece should be take a whole consideration about the international security arrangement, particularly in Europe.
It should be indivisible by the security order, like the Helsinki spirit.
Otherwise, this fight is fragile.
Second, the scope of the justice that it means to mutual concerns, all the concerns of whether Ukraine, Russia, even Europe should be fully considerate.
Okay, so on the Taiwan question, do you agree with this point by the Chinese foreign minister that if somehow the sovereignty or national territorial integrity of all countries must be respected as part of a very important international principle.
That also means that China's complete reunification should be supported as well.
Would you agree with this point?
And, by the way, if we take a look at another piece of recent news, recent development, how would you look at this very fact that the U .S.
State Department has dropped the wording on its official website that says that the U .S.
does not support Taiwan independence.
and others under the domestic affairs.
And then the US leader wrote, want to put the one China policy actually to be in there explaining there that the three communiques or even the UN resolution in 2007, the 58 not include of the Taiwan position in the world.
So they want to change this is radical, and then make it of course unstable situation in Taiwan Strait.
So the final question before we let you go professor.
we still have about like one minute before we let you go.
Another explicit message that China's foreign minister has sent at this conference in Munich is that China represents a trustworthy partner for Europe.
What do you think such a kind of assurance from from Beijing might mean to to Europe right now?
This is Munich's international security conference.
At the beginning, in so -called the premise of Japan three years ago, so today, Ukraine, tomorrow Taiwan.
So then not trust China in this regard.
So in the conference I make the presentation that I recently was a part of a consulting member of the 15 five year plan of the Beijing University.
In this border, we designed in the 15th five year plan without so -called use force, so that's the guarantee.
guaranteed. And then China, after they reduce the so -called unification, has turned out right.
So I'm guaranteed to Europeans and other international community that unification, of course, has turned out guaranteed.
Yeah, indeed. So going forward, a lot of things need to be sorted out.
And I guess, between Europe and China, we really wish the best of the hope for this bilateral relations going forward.
But thank you very much for joining us, Professor Wang Yiwei, joining us from Remming University of China.
We'll be back after a short break.
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French president Emmanuelle Macron is convening an emergency meeting of European leaders in Paris to discuss Ukraine and security in Europe.
The crisis meeting includes Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, and Denmark, as well as the NATO Secretary General and the Presidents of the Both, the European Council and the European Commission.
The meeting is coming a week after US President Donald Trump held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about peace talks over the war in Ukraine.
US Vice President J .D.
Vance has also spanned the majority of his address to the Munich Security Conference held in Germany, criticising European governments over migration and free speech, saying the greatest threat facing the continent is coming from within.
So joining us now underlying is Dr. George Zagopoulos from CIFE, a France based European research organization.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
So, what do you make of the timing of this particular meeting in Paris?
What's the main source of anxiety and fear for Europe right now?
Well, to start with, the Europeans are concerned about the conflict in Ukraine and the policy of President Trump vis -a -vis this conflict.
However, President Trump is implementing his pre -election agenda.
And the main reason why the meeting is taking place in Paris today is that a few days ago two presidents, President Trump and President Putin, spoke on the phone, and the Russian and American delegations are about to meet in Saudi Arabia in the absence of the European Union.
So this is the main reason for today's meeting in Paris, although, as I said before, President Trump is only implementing his pre -election agenda as far as Ukraine is concerned.
So, why do you think we are currently hearing mixed messages from the Trump administration with regard to whether its proposed peace negotiations for the Ukraine crisis will involve European powers?
Well, the Trump administration is currently in the process of negotiating with Russia.
So we do not know up to what extent negotiations and discussions will lead to a result, and we do not know if the presidents, President Trump and Putin, will finally meet.
It depends on the work, the preparatory work of the delegations of the United States and Russia.
So the United States is about to inform, obviously, Europe about what's going on, but at the same time the negotiation is taking place only between the two powers, the United States and Russia.
And this had been also the case before the beginning of the war, in February 2022, because again the main players were Russia and the United States, not the European Union.
So, the same is happening right now.
And from the moment there is currently no breakthrough as far as a peace settlement is concerned, this explains the fact that the messages that the American administration is sending are not very clear.
Hmmm... So, what is your overall impression and take away from J.
D. Vince's address in Munich?
It had been expected earlier before the events that the US Vice President would, of course, used his speech here to try to address possible negotiations to put an end to the war in Ukraine.
That was the previous expectation but why do you think he has instead spanned the majority of his time in Munich accusing European governments of retreating from their values for example and ignoring a European voter concerns regarding migration in a free speech?
This is a very good question I Again, I see continuity in the approach of the Trump administration.
Continuity not only in relation to the pre -election campaign and the pre -election agenda, but also continuity concerning the previous Trump administration.
Because the Trump administration does not really value EU's role in the world.
On the contrary, it is prepared to work together with member states.
So it is within this context that the message that Vice President Vance said in Munich can be better explained.
So I would say that we are currently having a new American government which has a clear agenda as far as political ideology is concerned and this clear agenda also is in line with some political parties in Europe and the American administration wants to work together with those parties.
So this is the message that Vice President Vance sent a few days ago in his first speech in Europe.
So at a time when, as we can tell from this meeting in Paris hosted by Emmanuel Chrome, at a time when Europe is having a sense of crisis due to multiple factors, what do you think the EU's partnership, strategic partnership with China might mean to the bloc moving forward?
Well, I would say that China and the European Union can build together a multilateral world.
And, obviously, this is a general trend which is applicable irrespective of the speeds of Vice President Vance and irrespective of Donald Trump coming to power in the United States.
But obviously, with the new American foreign and economic policy taking shape, it is evident that the European Union and China will perhaps have the opportunity to work together on several issues and on different fields, as it also happened during the first Trump administration.
So China and the European Union I believe that can foster collaboration.
In my opinion, the partnership is moving forward and we will have the chance to see more things to happen in the next years and problems and difficulties have been managed.
It is true that the two sides disagreed in the past but again it's important to see the glass as half full and I believe that the two sides can achieve significant results if they work together despite differences.
Thank you very much for joining us.
That was Dr. George Zagopoulos from CIPE, a France -based Europe research organization.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Coming up, Cook Island's Prime Minister defends signing of a wide -ranging deal with China.
We'll be back after a short break.
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The prime minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown has defended a new agreement with China, saying it aligns with the country's long -term interests.
Brown made remarks after returning from a five -day state visit to China, highlighting the deal's focus on trade, investment, ocean science and infrastructure.
He stressed that the ties with China complement the Cook Islands' relationships with New Zealand and the partners beyond.
diplomatic relations between China and the Kook Islands date back to the year 1997.
Biological trade has since grown surpassing 12 million U .S.
dollars in the first 10 months of 2023 a 9 % increase year -on -year this cooperation depends back in the year 2018 when the Kook Islands joined the Belt and Road initiative.
So for more on this developing story my colleague Gu An -na earlier spoke was Dr. Zhou Mi from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.
The Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Mark Brown has just concluded his one -week visit to China from February 10th to 16th.
Could you please share with us the details of his trip, which cities and projects were the focus of his visit this time?
Yes, we know that Cook Island is a little bit far from China.
So, when he came here, He has spent quite a while in China.
I don't think it's a no wonder because China is a big country.
So he went to the three provinces and cities like in the Heilongjiang to attend the Asia Sport Games, and also he went to the Shandong and went to Shanghai.
I mean, in Shandong he means trying to experience some of this marine economy to do with the the city of Qingdao and in Shanghai i think they also take a lot of activities to to look at the development of the some of the economies and some of the new energy companies i think that is a very for an agenda for his visit because both sides are doing a lot of for discussion and also i think that one of the priorities for his visit is trying to learn more about China's experiences on the poverty reduction, which is one of the very important issues, even for the country of Cook Islands.
The Cook Islands has officially signed a bilateral agreement with China, marking a deepening of ties between the two nations.
What is the significance of this agreement in Europe, especially in the context of the Pacific Islands geopolitical landscape?
We note that South Pacific countries are not a very big one, but they are very widely scattered.
infrastructure, so the cooperation with the main economies in the world is very difficult.
So in the past, because the communication and also a lot of interactions are not so good, they can only do some of the business with China, such as in some infrastructure cooperation, and also in tourism.
So this time I think that it's really a good opportunity for Cook Islands to know more about China's, about know the the width and also the death of the Chinese economies.
So, we have signed a cooperation development for the plan for so many areas, including, you know, the trade and investment, the tourism, the marine science, agriculture, agriculture, transportation, and also infrastructure.
And we have paid a lot of attention on Cook Islands willingness to improve this resilience in the climate change and trying to prevent the disasters.
So it is an earlier wide range of cooperation.
We cover so many areas and I think it's very important for both sides to know that for the development in the coming future we have so many things we can imagine.
Could you please elaborate more on the agreement?
From Cook Island's perspective, what specific benefits does the island country helps to gain from this agreement with China, and how does he align with the country's broader development goals?
Well, we know that China is the number one country, I mean for the development speed in the previous decades.
So if they are going to be connected with China's economy, I think there are so many things for the resilience.
China is a one of the main producer of the manufacturers and also we have so many big markets and we want to import more things from Cook Islands and other South Pacific country.
We know that Cook Islands is you know several about 15 islands in that country and they do not have so many natural resources but they have some of some of the possibilities like for the marine economies.
So they are developing most of their economies by the tourism and they want to be able to be more independent on economies.
So the cooperation between these two countries are really giving a very strong consumption and support for the development of this economy of the Cook Islands.
And it is important because we need to know that the economic ties should be strengthened based on the market.
So for both sides, we are able to support the Cook Islands with more new energy abilities to trying to support them, not for the consumer, but also for the development of the economies and other areas, and we also are able to provide a better abilities for infrastructure like for the airports, for the ports, or a lot of other areas like the telecommunications.
So you might understand that the cooperation with Cook Health is really important for us to improve the connections in these areas and it's a very important one because the diversification is one of the possibilities for Cook Islands to get a better performance.
Now War Road, does China envision further cooperation with the Cook Islands in its wider relations with small island nations?
Yeah, actually last year I went to New Zealand to attend the Track 2 discussion or dialogue and we also have some discussion with the New Zealand and about the possibilities of cooperation between China and the South Pacific countries.
We know that the Cook Islands is one of the three nations has association with New Zealand, but they do not able to provide a better and very strong market.
So in my understanding that performance with the Cook Islands is also important for us, because we want to strengthen the cooperation with the South Pacific communities.
. So, with Cook Islands, it is just one example.
So, we can improve the regional cooperation on trying to make a better use of the resources and deal with a problem like fighting against the climate change and improve the resilience of the development.
So, for China, I think that is also a lot of possibilities for us to give the companies, of Chinese companies and also the local companies, more opportunities for cooperation and it is not just trying to fight against the third party.
So even with New Zealand, and even Australia, I believe that we do have so many possibilities for cooperation and we can improve the better abilities of logistics and also provide better and more efficient ways for two -way communications and improve resilience of the culture also.
Speaking of that, when discussing China's Kug Island cooperation, many foreign media athletes are focusing on how this partnership might impact the region's relationship with other powers such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
As you mentioned earlier, what are your thoughts on such a focus and the related commentary?
Well, it is very interesting because when we're discussing the problems of the bilateral relation between China and Australia, China and the New Zealand, they are experiencing some of the worries about the so much dependent on the economy of China.
But when we discuss about the South Pacific countries, they seem to neglect the possibilities of diversification.
So I think that the cooperation is trying to give some more opportunities.
The decision power are still in the hands of the South Pacific countries.
They do not have to worry about the possibilities, because if you are looking at the market, As a market principle, I think that people are able to do their choices.
I don't think that we are forced to some other countries to do something.
They are just giving more opportunities.
They can choose by themselves.
This is a very fair so we can even try to cooperate with Australia and New Zealand in those countries.
Also, if they want and if the people of those countries also want.
There is no such kind of things of just picking one from two.
Dr. Jumil from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation talking to my colleague Ge Ana.
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Alibaba is partnering with Apple to roll out artificial intelligence features for iPhone users in China.
AI integration is critical for iPhone which faces declining sales in a key market.
Alibaba sees the partnership as a major wing in China's competitive artificial intelligence market.
So for more on this latest development, my colleague Zhao Yang spoke with Professor Chu Qiang from Mingzhu University of China.
So Professor Chu Qiang, first, why Apple has gone for Alibaba over other Chinese AI companies companies for this partnership?
Why did they choose them?
Well, I think Apple is probably one of the most important tech companies in the whole world with global influences.
And I think in China, the company who is worse to be their counterpart is basically only Alibaba and Tencent.
But I think for the consumption part, I think only Alibaba can match Apple's demand.
I think number one is about the data resources and localization capability because Alibaba as one of the most important e -commerce giant and also the e -payment giant have accumulated lots of the behavior data of the consumers.
For example, like the consumption, like the payment habits.
And also, I think Alibaba right now has been emerging very quickly in the AI model.
And I think secondly is about Alibaba's big model, large language model.
I think it's called the TONI -CHEN -1.
It's based on the QWEN 2 .5 max model, and I think this is also a very, very important reason for that.
It's not only because of its good performance, but also I think it's very cost effective.
And also, I think it certainly is about your experiences in infrastructures.
Well let people well know them as an e -commerce company, but the more you have to understand They are one of the largest cloud computing service providers in China.
They're servers, their infrastructure is probably leading.
Based on that reason, I think that's the reason why they chose Alibaba to be their strategic partner.
And is it going to save the iPhone sales though?
Well, to some extent.
I think Apple is very good in the hardware, but I think they're in localization and the customer service is providing for the Chinese customer, they're absolutely liking behind, like Huawei, like Xiaomi.
I think the strategy for Apple right now in China is absolutely localization.
Also, to meet the demand of the local customers in China, I think Alibaba absolutely have this humongous experience in this area.
So I think through this cooperation, they will absolutely use A .I.
Well, A .I. is just one of the perspectives, but they will use many other perspectives to meet the challenge with Huawei, with Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, and et cetera.
So I think they probably will provide some other, you know, customized version of Apple in Chinese market repeated, to meet the demand and face the challenge.
And what about it for Alibaba?
What does it mean for them and for the broader AI market in China?
For Alibaba, I think it's absolutely one of the most important opportunities.
Alibaba is a stock price.
If you're following them, I think, it's been slowing down for many years.
but right now if you read the analyzed report from the Goldman Sachs from many of the investment banks at UOC they responded very positively towards this opportunity because Apple has been providing the hardware and basically it's more than just a hardware it's more like an entry, more like a window towards the whole world.
So I think with this marriage of the technology and a business model, they will absolutely help Alibaba to make this AI technology to be materialized, to be actually put into actual use.
And also, I think Alibaba has been famous in the Chinese or Grand Chinese Circle, but right now has been bonding with Apple.
I think this is a major up in the evaluation and the brand name of Alibaba.
So you will see that after this announcement, Alibaba's stock price has been rising just a beginning.
And also, I think this is a strong push for not only Alibaba, but also for the whole AI market in China.
It will be serving as one of the benchmark in the whole industry, and also will help to open source in China.
Because right now, I think Alibaba also is following the open source model, and right now, I think with the, because Apple also have a very large community for the developers, so I think this will push forward the Alibaba Open Source circle and the developer's communities as well.
And some data shows that China saw a 36 % increase in the AI market last year while the debut of deep seek generated further enthusiasm.
So how do you view China's AI development, its market and applications?
Why can they develop so quickly and will China's open source model become the trend in the global AI development?
I think China will absolutely have the government support and most of the government support in market demand, because we have one of the largest market in the world, which is 1 .4 billion people and 500 million rising middle income class.
And they are very, very familiar with the smart consumption based on AI, based on the e -commerce, and based on the e -payment.
And if you are familiar with Chinese market, I think China probably is largest market based on the globalization slash the digitalization.
So I think the whole market has been trained very well.
And I think secondly, it's about the government policies.
We have, you 14th five -year program and now we'll be making the 15th five -year program.
And I think according to the Chinese government, you know a top -notch design I think AI is absolutely one of the focus and slash more than that I think we have been focusing on the infrastructures like the computational power like the data like the server and all those and also the 3G, 4G and 5G network and 16 network has also been very much focused in the past five year programs.
And also, I think secondly is about Chinese company have a very different, you know, a notion or opinions on this development.
For example, open source, when the open AI are following the closed source strategy, but you know, Alibaba, Deep Seeker, and all these big giants in AI, they followed open source strategy.
This may march lower than this cost.
And also they've been pushing forward the whole community of the developers, and make these popularization of AI has been going very fast.
And also I think what's behind that is a long term strategy of the government in nurturing the STEM talents, the science and technology, mathematics, and all these are has been a long strategy for China for a very, very long time.
So I think the very large fleet of the engineers is actually behind all those developments.
We call the engineers a bonus, has been supporting China to grow very fast in not only this AI trend, but also in the past trends like the mobile Internet, like the e -commerce, digitalization, and et cetera.
And talking about Hangzhou.
There are eastern Chinese cities in Zhejiang province.
is, it is the home to Alibaba and DeepSeek, also A .I.
robotics companies, a lot of them, and it is the home to the Sikhs Little Dragon.
So, why is this city full of high -tech innovation capability, and can the Hangzhou model be replicated?
Well, yes, I think the reason why Hangzhou has been leading in this round of technology breakthrough, I think this is very, very short.
Number one, I think, we have the giants as leading force.
For example, Alibaba has been rising up in Hangzhou.
And Alibaba has been building up very good infrastructure in Hangzhou.
For example, if you go to Hangzhou, you'll find out the whole cities, transportation has been controlled with what we call the smart brain.
Every traffic light has been controlled with this smart technology, with algorithms.
So It will largely reduce the congestion in the whole transportation network.
This is just one example.
It shows you that how much of the technology infrastructure has been built in the city, and secondly is the talents has been spilled over from the company like Alibaba.
Many of the smart engineers, they have been quitting Alibaba, started their own companies and forged very good ecology in the talents, and also is policy and whole ecology.
because I think the city government of Hangzhou actually has been using many very good policy combos to try to nurture all these companies.
For example, tax rebates.
For example, like the government funded incubators.
For example, like the strong funding for the local universities, like Zhejiang University is a very important university.
In not only Hangzhou, but also in the whole China.
And also I think the Hangzhou has been trying to create a whole ecology, in combining different companies.
They encouraged those companies, for example, if you are manufacturers and then will create a platform for you to communicate with like the AI companies.
So I think all these kinds of ecology is actually very, very important.
Professor Chiu -Chiang from Minzuo University of China talking to my colleague Zhao Yang.
That's all the time for this edition of World Today.
A quick recap of today's headline news.
President Xi Jinping speaks to private -sector entrepreneurs in a high -profile meeting.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yee pledges that China will be a stabilizing force in a multi -polar world order.
France is holding emergency European meetings in Paris to try to address the challenges posted by U .S.
President Donald Trump.
To listen to this episode again or to catch upon a previous episode, download our podcast by searching, World Today.
I'm Dean Hunning Beijing.
Thank you so much for listening.
Bye for now
